Looking ahead to the Mandalorian Wars

[NukeHavoc]

I got Tales of the Jedi: Volume 2 for Christmas, and reading it (plus glancing through my spiffy new Star Wars: The Essential Atlas) has me raring to go with the Mandalorian Wars campaign (not that I want to skip the interlude ... just that I'm excited to get started with the next phase of the campaign).

There are several ways I'm thinking of going with this (but feel free to offer your own ideas):

1) Start during the False War, in which the Mandalorians are probing the defenses of the Republic's Outer Rim planets, notably Taris and its surrounding planets. Our heroes are Jedi tasked with investigating and evaluating the threat for the Jedi Council.

2) Start during the Mandalorian Wars proper (possibly with the assault on Taris), engaging primarily in humanitarian missions on behalf of the Jedi Council, who does not want to get involved in the actual fighting. This would involve dealing with the aftershocks of the war, and occasional Mandalorian incursions.

3) Start during the Mandalorian Wars, but have our heroes be in the thick of things (e.g. trapped on a planet being attacked by the Mandalorians and having to fight their way to freedom.

I think the crux of this arc, from a story standpoint, is the decision that every Jedi will need to make (hell, every character for that matter): Do you join with Malek and Revan to fight the Mandalorian incursion, or do you follow the wishes of the Jedi Council, and stay out of the way? If you join with Malek and Revan, then I see the campaign unfolding somewhat like the Clone Wars, with our Jedi heroes becoming commanders in the armed forces, calling upon their friends in Binary Transport for various special missions.

If you stay with the Jedi, then I see more indirect adventures, dealing with the fall out of the Mandalorian Wars (perhaps a Hutt clan decides to make a power play in the outer rim to take advantage of the distracted Republic, or humanitarian missions are needed for planets overrun by refuges, etc.) I still see plenty of potential conflicts with the Mandalorians here, but the tenor is changed; it's more about avoiding the fight than it is embracing it.

This in turn plays a *huge* role in how the Jedi Civil War turns out -- do you join with Malek and Revan's new Sith Empire to bring order to the galaxy? Do you fight against former comrades who've defected to the Sith after Malek and Revan's successful campaign to end the Mandalorian Wars? So many choices.

But what do you think? What would you like to be able to do during the Mandalorian Wars storyline?

[NukeHavoc]

[bump]

We talked about this briefly after one of our game nights, but I'm not sure where we landed.

The big question for me is: Do we start during the False War (where the Mandos are attacking Outer Rim planets, lulling the republic into thinking its not their problem) or during the Mandalorian Onslaught that follows it (which is when they assault Taris; I got my timelines mixed up).

[Hardcorhobbs]

I was thinking end of the False war as we'll pretty much be running through that in my arc.

[erilar]

Don't know enough about the background to weigh in.

[Jonkga]

I'm probably not going to weigh in, as I will probably be unable to make most of the gaming sessions due to a scheudle change at work. I'm ok with whatever the group decides, and I'll have a character ready to go for the times I am able to make it. Just let me know what we finally decide for character builds/level/etc.

[NukeHavoc]

Don't know enough about the background to weigh in.

Everything I know about it I learned from Wookiepedia. Oh, and a little from the Star Wars Atlas too...

But in any case, the basic gist is this:

A short time from now (campaign-wise), the Mandalorians begin attacking Outer Rim worlds. IIRC they do this partly to see what the Republic response will be, partly to try out their new neo-Crusader tactics, and partly to lull the Republic into a false sense of security (because they're not attacking core Republic territory; it's all unaligned or extremely distant star systems.

A few years later, this changes, and the Mandalorians launch an all-out assault on the Republic; a major thrust of that effort is an assault on Taris and other worlds near by (like, say Zebulon).

Ultimately it's a question of how long you want to fight Mandalorians for.

Since Cory's going to be running stuff during the False War, then I think it makes sense to kick off the campaign with the Mandalorins' first strikes against Republic space.

Bob what do you think? You've probably have the best sense of the timeline here.

[Hardcorhobbs]

Ok here is my full plan for the Mandalorian Interlude:

The Mandalorian wars consists of three parts: War in the Unknown Regions, The False War, and the Invasion. I plan to arc through the first two parts leading up to the push on Taris. At that point we'll end the Interlude and return to our heroes and Ken's next arc. The theme behind the arc will be of course war, but the underlying tone will be the friction between the traditional Mando's and the Neo-Crusaders.

The plan is to have everyone start as a Mandalorian... and you will be given the choice to join the Neo-crusaders at several points. What the characters do is up to them. I plan to tailor the campaign to what you decide. In other words you may take up different parts of a mission depending on where your loyalty lays. To make things more interesting I'm going to suggest that everyone is from the same clan. Your characters would thus all know each other making the decision on which side to take more interesting. If you guys agree suggestions for a clan name would be welcome.

The sessions should be very episodic, with each session stand alone. I plan to do that to cover this 10 year span in about 8 sessions? I think that's what we agreed on. One of the episodes of the arc will be a shift to the republic, where you guys will play fighter pilots. That session will use pre-generated characters as I'm planing to run that session at Mepacon.

In terms of gear everyone can have standard Mandalorian armor, a gun, jetpack, and standard gear. When we get closer we'll post characters so we can make sure everyone has equivalent gear.

Anyway, those are my plans; let me know your thoughts.

[erilar]

If I understand correctly, the Mandos only started widely adopting jetpacks w/ the advent of the Neo-Crusaders?

[NukeHavoc]

If I understand correctly, the Mandos only started widely adopting jetpacks w/ the advent of the Neo-Crusaders?

Hmmm. I don't really know, now that I think about it. I just always assumed it was one of the standard Mando armor enhancements going way back.

Bob, Nate -- any insights?

[EvilGenius]

Nah, jetpacks aren't standard issue in the KotOR era.
Which is not to say that we can't be a mobile-jetpack squad!!

[Hardcorhobbs]

Well you guys are the Big Damn (anti-)Heroes! And I know one or two of you expressed interest in Jetpacks. So yeah, you guys can totally have them if you want. Your small clan can be known for utilizing them in combat. Of course, don't worry about specializing in them if you don't want. If your build isn't set up for one you can just use it for traveling purposes. Those who use them in combat or skill checks will have to make the saves

[erilar]

Nah, jetpacks aren't standard issue in the KotOR era.

Per the KotOR SWSE book, they are for the Neo-Crusaders - that's what I was referring to. "Free jet pack with every set of NC armor - get yours today!"

[Hardcorhobbs]

Per the KotOR SWSE book, they are for the Neo-Crusaders - that's what I was referring to. "Free jet pack with every set of NC armor - get yours today!"

Gotcha. Well because I know some wanted to go the mobile fighter route I don't want them to be stifled by my decision to have no Neo-crusaders up front. So we'll say everyone has access to a jetpack... though if you want to trade it in for some other piece of non-standard equipment let me know and we'll make a deal

In other words your equipment will be thus:

1) Mandalorian Armor
2) A regular gun with two upgrades, a set of pistols each with an upgrade, or a special gun with one upgrade
3) a non-standard piece of equipment (jetpack, slicer kit, tools, etc.)
4) Standard adventuring gear

[NukeHavoc]

I think it makes sense to say that some clans always used jetpacks with their armor and that the practice went mainstream in Mandalorian culture with the Neo-Crusaders.

From a strictly logistical/gming standpoint, it's a lot easier to *not* have all the Mandos wearing jetpacks, as that would make running the combats a lot more difficult. This is is something I've been thinking about when brainstorming the Mandalorian Wars portion of the campaign; my intention had been for a lot of the grunts not to have jetpacks. The same goes for Basalisk war droids.

[Hardcorhobbs]

From a strictly logistical/gming standpoint, it's a lot easier to *not* have all the Mandos wearing jetpacks, as that would make running the combats a lot more difficult. This is is something I've been thinking about when brainstorming the Mandalorian Wars portion of the campaign; my intention had been for a lot of the grunts not to have jetpacks. The same goes for Basalisk war droids.

Oh I totally agree there! While some Mando's with jetpacks could make for interesting combats, too many will definitely bring a headache for the Gm.