Monday 24 November 2014

ARC Caster

Here's a little custom homebrew weapon for SWRPGs that I made a couple years or so ago, based off of the weapon the Phase Zero Dark Troopers wield in Star Wars: Battlefront 2. I originally avoided posting this since I hadn't had the chance to playtest it, but since I still don't know when that'll be I've decided to do it anyway. I've updated what I originally wrote for WotC's Saga Edition to FFG's Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion.





ARC Caster/DN Bolt Caster

Energy Weapon
SKILL: Ranged (Heavy) | DAMAGE: 7 | CRIT: 5 | RANGE: Short | ENCUM: 5 | HP: 1 | PRICE: (R) 1,500 | RARITY: 7 | SPECIAL: Blast 6, Disorient 3, Inaccurate 1, Limited Ammo 5, Prepare 1, Stun 5 (Droids/Cyborg only)

Modified E-11e 
Built by BlasTech, SoroSuub Corporation, and Merr-Sonn Munitions, Inc. ARC Casters are heavily modified E-11 blaster rifles that were utilized by Phase Zero Dark Troopers employed by the Imperial Army. 

These weapons were so named for their ability to "arc" an electrical bolt from one target to another. Using a charge function, it would prepare a blast of electricity that when launched at a target fully charged, could affect up to four adjacent targets. This type of weapon was similar to the plasma disruptors (DN Bolt casters) originally used by dismounted clone pilots as a personal weapon. 

The powerful shock released is severely damaging to the wiring and systems of droids; additionally, since they aren't ion-based, ARC Casters are just as harmful to organics, though to a slightly lesser degree. 

An ARC Caster requires a power pack to operate; after 5 uses, the power pack must be replaced. Activating the Blast quality uses up half (round up) of the remaining Limited Ammo.

On a Despair ▼ result, the bolt arcs back to its wielder, dealing damage equal to the weapon's Blast rating.



DN Bolt Caster

Sunday 23 November 2014

Galactic Gazetteer: Aduba-3

Here's a Galactic Gazetteer I made on a planet one of my SWRPG groups visited years back. We still have fond memories of this dust-laden, backwater world of Aduba-3.

Some (BBY) adventure hooks I came up with:

  • a good old fashioned bar fight in Locru's Saloon (they don't take too kindly to cyborgs or 'borg lovers) 
  • Modirin Mining Concern (a Tenloss Syndicate front; they might have some jobs for those with less scruples)
  • a Sullustan mechanic (who can only speak Sullustese) and his shop (he's a master at jury-rigging and modding speeders and swoops); 
  • a visit to the House of a Higher Power run by a young Force-sensitive Verpine priest of the Sacred Way known as 'Pera'
  • exploring abandoned chromium mines with the also younger, more precocious 'Old One' and discovering a lost Sith laboratory complete with Sith-spawn and a gigantic, slumbering Behemoth from the World Below! (So that's how he knew about the beast...) My group wisely decided it'd be best to try and collapse the mine upon it to bury it (for now); they set a series of charges and then climbed with all haste out of the mine, just escaping in the knick of time as the whole structure collapsed.

There's plenty of other material that can be mined (forgive the pun) for adventures on Aduba-3. I tried to make the info usable in any version of the SWRPG; WEG's d6, WotC's Saga Editon, or FFG's system used in EotE. Enjoy!



Aduba-3

Astrogation Data: Aduba system, Bheriz sector, Outer Rim Territories
Orbital Metrics: 343 days per year / 22 standard hours per day
Satellites: 1 moon
Government: anarchy
Population: estimated 3 million, mostly transient (Humans 69% , Rodian 3%, Jawa 2%, Ithorian 2%, Boltrunian 1%, Wroonian 1%, other 22%)
Languages: Basic
Climate: arid to temperate
Terrain: deserts, plains, steepe
Major Cities: Tun Aduba (captial), Onacra
Areas of Interest: abandoned chromium mines, Locru's Central Saloon, House for a Higher Power, Spacer's Hill
Major Exports: "chromium", contraband, foodstuffs
Major Imports: agricultural goods, contraband, technology
Trade Routes: Triellus Trade Route
Special Conditions: none
Background: Wookiepedia

WEG: Knowledge - Planetary Systems or Scholar | WotC: Knowledge (Galactic Lore) | FFG: [Hard: Outer Rim or Daunting: Lore]
Difficulty | DC | Success/Advantage/Triumph*

Difficult | 15 |  - Aduba-3 is a backwater world in the Rimward territories with very little to offer to spacers besides seclusion.


Very Difficult | 20 | ☼@ - The Galactic Republic discovered Aduba-3 circa 1,000 BBY, though the world was not colonized until 500 BBY as an agriworld, establishing farming villages for the harvest of maze-stalk and mizzlegritch moss.

Heroic | 25 | ☼@@ - During the Clone Wars, Aduba had been annexed by the Hutt Empire, though it would be claimed by the Galactic Empire after the war was soon forgotten. It became a powerful shadowport after its dealings with the Hutts, attracting all kinds of scum from across the galaxy looking to avoid those who pursued them.

Heroic (Scholar Only) | 30 | [Lore only] ╬ - Lying on the fringes of Sith Space during the New Sith Wars, the world was initially visited in 1,010 BBY by a Sith Lord of the Brotherhood of Darkness who used it as one of his testing grounds for Sith alchemy.



Knowledge - Cultures | Knowledge (Social Sciences) | [Hard: Education]
DC | Success/Advantage Result

Difficult | 15 | ☼@ - The founding colonists were followers of the Sacred Way, although currently only a small percent of the farmers follow any of the religion's tenants. The two largest settlements are the seedy spaceport Tun-Aduba; the unofficial capital; and the small farming community of Onacra.




Knowledge - Business | Knowledge (Bureaucracy) | [Hard: Underworld]
DC | Success/Advantage Result

Very Difficult | 20 | ☼@@ Greedy speculators from the Modirin Mining Concern came to the planet and caused a chromium rush by way of mine-seeding. When traders realized there was no fortune to be had on Aduba-3, it lost any appeal it might have had and began to disappear from star charts.

*Successes are represented with [], Advantages with [@], and Triumph with []