Star Wars: the Rats and the Mynocks (discussion)

Nobody else there

You guys are great. I'd planned on posting earlier, but the PCs are making such a wonderful mess of things on their own. Keep it up!

If you want to mess things up, PCs are probably more efficient per trainwreck than any other method!

So I had a chance to spend the afternoon at the library, and for the sake of GM'ing this game I went back and re-read Enemy Lines II: Rebel Dream. EU books are often pretty disappointing, but Allston's a good enough writer to make it enjoyable. (Also, it's pretty much the only book that covers the immediate aftermath of the invasion. Not to mention Blackmoon Eleven, the greatest pilot of all time.)

Things that I picked up:

• YZV activity is pretty damn intense around the old governing district, and they will have no shortage of fire support. That probably includes warships in low orbit, plus fighters.
• YZV are factionalized like all hell. Even figuring the domains to be pretty large (many own worldships), this probably means that lots of internecine conflicts. Confirmed on the planetary surface as well.
• What was keeping the atmosphere breathable were atmosphere scrubbing facilities. These were usually kept under extreme tight secrecy and security; Palpy apparently had anti-riot plans up his sleeve: in case of planetary revolt, cut off air supply. These facilities were usually buried pretty deeply and hidden really well.
• Planetary Vongforming was well underway by early 28ABY. New Republic's SOE-esque resistance antics began at that time, too, with Wraith Squadron member Baljos Arnjak, and it's very likely that other SF-type troops would be inserted on the planet after that to help organize partisan movements.
• Vong do have translator thingummies called tizowyrms (think the babelfish), but probably not in full supply. Their body armor is resistant to SMG/carbine fire, which is unfortunate for Republic troops which seem to depend on SMGs. Rifle-equivalents are another story.
• The Vong also have a big espionage program going, kidnapping, brainwashing, and turning loose prisoners. Brainwashing can take days to weeks, several weeks being the apparent average. Something to keep in mind.
• Also, governing district saw a lot of people turn to cannibalism. Food shortages will be a real problem.

Ah, so our job will actually be a lot harder than we anticipated.

Oh well, more's the merrier! I'm already thinking of new ways to take advantage of this information, although it's unlikely to come up IC (since 1) Galvin isn't a strategist or even a tactician and 2) unless we get lucky I don't imagine we'll figure out some of these things).

Cannibalism, eh? Hmmm, if only there were some sort of gray food substance that could be used to maximize the nutrition content of corpses, while getting rid of that corpsey taste....

edited 9th Aug '12 2:10:18 PM by nman

Sabre will suffice.

...Well played.

Anyway, I sense the nucleus of a group forming...

I'm making a few assumptions.

• Zora's bar has another way in or out that doesn't involve tripping over her own mines. If not, well, think fast, please.
• The sniper's nest that Galvin's group is near has line-of-sight to the fighters inbound.

And, yes, those were civvies Zora was potshotting towards. The Vong are still securing the center towers, and I'm guessing you lot are further out.

I think you mean Shtir there, Sabre, not Zora.

Also, sorry for not posting much lately, I'll get on that.

Also, the two of them were already out of the bar. Ace was never even in it.

Ah, things just get more interesting by the minute, don't they?

(rereads)

...dammit. Edits on the way. That, however, does solve the issue of how you'd get out of the minefield. For a moment I thought I'd have to randomly blow off limbs.

That would've been a fine way to start the game. Killer GM indeed!

It's not my fault if my players (potentially) boobytrap their only exit route. Be embarrassing as hell, though.

By the way, I've just reread Traitor today. Let me put it this way: if there one NJO book to read, it's this one. The writing is leagues above the average for EU novels, and even better than Zahn or Allston.

More relevantly, it does explore what post-invasion Coruscant's like. The YZV plan is, roughly, this: after general pacification of the planet, seed the place, shift it into closer orbit, build a planetary ring, and run comets through the atmosphere to add moisture to the air. Then, jungle-form the whole place.

However, in most cases, the jungles are on the outsides of the buildings. The interiors, and Yun-Yuuzhan knows there's enough of those, are mainly untouched, even if vines and other flora tend to intrude. Do keep away from the wildlife, though. They're not very friendly for the most part. Also, most of the artificial building materials under the jungle are intact.

Also, this. For an idea of what you're dealing with.

Now, a very large percentage of those will be simply packed onto spacefaring refugee ships and sent off to New Republic worlds, which will have to stress their resources to the breaking point to feed the millions of additional mouths. But even the Vong can't spare the resources to deport nine hundred billion people.

Those survivors can be your weapon as well as the enemy's.

edited 17th Aug '12 8:10:27 PM by SabresEdge

Thanks for the recommendation.

And that is a hell of a lot of people (though it's to be expected for an ecumenopolis (?) ).

I do like Star Wars 1313 for another fact.

The city?

It's six kilometers thick.

That's a epic crapton of room to play hide and seek in

6km = 6000m approx equals 18000ft...holy mother of Skywalker!

Okay, then. Time for a bit of canon explainin'.

The "tallest" building on Imperial City, according to the Star Wars Wikia, was the Imperial Palace. It gives its height at 3km. A bit of Canon Welding gives us this explanation: in addition to building upwards three kilometers, Coruscantis also dug downward into the planet. Which would explain the rivers of lava.

As for how they dealt with the air pressure changes? SCIENCE!

edited 19th Aug '12 9:55:13 PM by SabresEdge

It's kind of like how people (with much more free time than me) talk about the height of mountains that are partially in the ocean!

...Okay, my mind is officially blown.

Nman — when I commented on an odd voice, I meant Ace's. He's a Darktrooper after all, neh?

Writer's block has quite firmly seized me, so if I don't respond for a while you know why. Ack.

Yup.

But I commented on you guy's voice, since he won't sound like a Mandalorian, neh?

He probably sounds like Cody here (skip to ~1:50).

edited 24th Aug '12 11:56:08 AM by desdendelle

Oh, yeah, he'd be like a robo version of that. I mean that your guy's not a mandalorian, so he would have a voice that is atypical for a trooper.

edited 24th Aug '12 12:00:52 PM by nman