sw aor

Star Wars Wednesday - Shows and Cons

Time flies when you're too busy and traveling too much to post. Also, you know your flights are going to have some issues when your ultimate destination's airport evacuates for a tornado warning. No serious issue in the end, just some inconvenience. Among the items taking up time was one of many summer cons I'll be attending in some fashion...and it had a new Star Wars guest...

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Star Wars Wednesday - GamerNation Con 2016

This past weekend brought GamerNation Con 2016, hosted in Dallas, Texas by d20 radio and the Order66 podcast. I had a good time last year and found a way to get a bit of time to return this year. The con is relatively small, but has a very dedicated Star Wars RPG fan base, and it hosts a wide variety of board games, RPGs, and...lip sync battle. GamerNation clearly extends well beyond the US and some attendees come from around the world - Germany, Australia, Scotland, Canada, Norway, and probably others I'm overlooking at the moment. It was fun to see those who returned from last year, plus those who I've met elsewhere, like GenCon or Star Wars Celebration. The guests of honor were Rodney Thompson (formerly of Wizards of the Coast, Star Wars Saga Edition and D&D 5e fame, now with Bungie working on Destiny) and Christopher West (Maps of Mastery).

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Star Wars Wednesday - A Big Map Game

Last weekend's Midwest GameFest was a success. The new venue and setup worked well, and though there are always things to improve upon, it went very well. I kept very busy, as I was slated to do something every slot. It didn't always happen - they had the D&D Adventurers League tables covered so I didn't end up running AL. That wasn't a bad thing, though, since I was still putting aspects of my other games together. I'd been derailed by work, a freelance deadline, and the Royals great playoff run. I ran a session of Numenera, a couple of Savage Worlds The Last Parsec, and a couple of different Star Wars RPG adventures. I also participated in a couple of panels and wrapped up with an Aethercon panel on Sunday. More on that later. For the Star Wars RPG games, though, I tried a few new ideas...
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Star Wars Wednesday - Games and More Games

Good news for my non-baseball and/or non-Royals loving twitter followers: my feed should be a dominated by a lot less baseball for awhile. It's been a great postseason and an exhausting few days between the end of the series and yesterday's epic victory parade, for which I had a front row seat. Fortunately, there has been a sudden surge of Star Wars tabletop games news the past few days. First up is the just-announced Star Wars Force and Destiny Nexus of Power sourcebook, of which I'm one of the writers. 
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Star Wars Wednesday - Game On

OK, so I'm writing this during Game 2 of the World Series, so it will be brief. How so? I started to do this after the 1st inning. It's now the start of the fifth and here we are still at the intro. After Jason Fry's visit a few weeks ago, it has turned out that its the Royals vs Mets, so both of our twitter feeds have more than a little baseball right now. The Royals won last night in an epic 14 inning game. The Mets are up at the moment by one run. Beyond these games, it has been a week for Star Wars gaming as well. 
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Star Wars Wednesday - Using Maps

Maps are great tools for RPGs, both in play and as sources of inspiration. Following on from last week's Maps of Mastery Stats post, here are a few ways to use those maps in RPGs. As it happens, Fantasy Flight Games posted a new preview of Star Wars Age of Rebellion Strongholds of Resistance, highlighting Rebel bases in the book. I had a great time with that section.

Deck plans and bases are among the more common map types in Star Wars games, so both make good starting points for map based adventures or encounters. Maps can be great sources of inspiration.

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Star Wars Wednesday - Maps of Mastery Stats

Quite awhile back....like several years ago....I posted some Star Wars RPG ship and vehicle stats for some of Christopher West's Maps of Mastery sci-fi maps. First in Star Wars RPG d20 Saga Edition stats, then a few in Saga and West End Games d6 when the RPG license was between companies. They are still on the site, and have remained reasonably popular. I've been wanting to do an update for the Star Wars Edge of the Empire / Age of Rebellion / Force and Destiny RPGs for the longest time, and never could seem to find the time.

Well, now I have.

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Star Wars Wednesday - Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, Almost There

On the way to Star Wars Celebration Anaheim. The is an extremely early flight, following a too short night brought about by too many deadlines and other work compressed by said deadlines. I'm ready to be done with that for awhile. On the plus  side, no line at security. This looks to be written in at least two airports and an airplane. Ten minutes to boarding. Time enough to pass along a couple of fun things I hinted at last week that I get to be part of at Celebration.
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Star Wars Wednesday - Planet Comicon 2015

Planet Comicon was very successful again this year. The crowd control was better. The main hall probably had more than last year (hard to tell), and the main stage was a huge upgrade in size and atmosphere. There was plenty of Star Wars, and the light saber dealer appeared to clean up, given the number of sabers seen around the con. The 501st, Rebel Legion, and other groups were attended, complete with photo-op dioramas and even a mock up of a Rebel snowspeeder.
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Star Wars Wednesday - A Week of Announcements

It's been quite a week so far, and it's only Wednesday, and there is much more to come. It's one of those times when the stars align and bunch of stuff is announced at once. Also, I'm really glad I didn't get a chance to write this last night, given that one of the announcements is today. So what's up? A released adventure, a new announced title, and I'll be at a convention this weekend and next. Fun times. 
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