Star Wars: Imperial City [Freeform, Small Group, Recruiting]

[TheGrandAdmiral]

Welcome to the Imperial City, the crown jewel of the Galactic Empire, formerly known as Coruscant.

Once an example of cooperation and tolerance under the Galactic Republic, all that millennia of progress swept with one swift swoop. With the change of the name, to Imperial City, its heart was changed. It grew darker, despite Coruscant remaining the city that never slept, its soul has been corrupted. It was no longer the beacon of hope and prosperity, but a planet turned into a jail for the normal people, toiling under the upper Imperial classes and the megacorps, draining their lifeblood.

While the upper levels were more or less maintained, the lower ones, the ones that did not see the sun, were even more decrepit than before. Corruption grew endemic as the Coruscant Security Force no longer cared for justice, only order was important to them. The white armored stormtroopers raided dwellings and people started to disappear.

Fear, suspicion and hostility. Those are some of the words that can describe the populace of Coruscant. This air of corruption became the breeding ground for all the scum to thrive on. Black Sun, the Hutts and other criminal enterprises rule the lower levels. Czerka and other megacorporations the mid and upper levels.

But in all this darkness there is still hope. Idealists, slicers, Rebel operatives, were willing to risk their lives and fight for the people.

********************

So I am hooked on Cyberpunk 2077 (big surprise there) and I love the setting and I also love Star Wars. I know that they are not very close, but some of the cyberpunk tropes can work in that universe, especially on Coruscant.

The basic premise is that it is set in the late Imperial Era (I am going to use a bit of the Legends canon that due to the planetary shields the climate has changed and it rains a lot, so it is all gloomy and even more oppressive). The story revolves around a small group of characters (I am thinking around 5-6 characters tops). No Force users, at least one Rebel operative, the others can be smugglers, mercs, slicers, ex-Imperials.

Mostly fighting against gangs, Black Sun, Czerka and other megacorps, along with some Imperial targets.

So I hope there will be some interest in this RP.

Oh, it is a freeform game as I don't have any experience GMing, nor playing a system game.

**********************

Here is a sample CS:

Code Select Expand

[float=right][img height=300 padding=5]Insert the Link of YC's Picture[/img][/float]
[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Sexual Orientation:[/b]
[b]Physical Description:[/b]
[b]Appearance:[/b]
[b]Personality:[/b]
[b]Likes:[/b]
[b]Dislikes:[/b]
[b]Profession:[/b]
[b]Affiliation and Rank:[/b]
[b]Equipment and Weapons:[/b]
[b]Skills:[/b]
[b]Bio:[/b]

Basic Rules:

Please post your CS here for preliminary approval

No God-modding

Obey the Site’s rules

The GM’s word is law

If you have to pause your participation or would like to withdraw please notify beforehand so that I can accommodate

Have fun

[BlueEyedBard]

I'll post some interest.

[Gnollboy92]

Consider me interested! I've recently got my hands on some Star wars content focusing on the espionage operations so this works out nicely in terms of serendipitous interest.

[TheGrandAdmiral]

Thank you for the interest, I will start developing the opening post with more details, hopefully this weekend.

[Karma]

I may be interested in this for the exact reasons you wanted to run it!

[TheGrandAdmiral]

Heya all! I am sorry it took me far longer than intended, but with the holidays I have been busy! Anyway I made a short intro and a CS format.

I hope you are still interested!

And for the rest, the game is still open for more players.

[Captain Whitebread]

System game or freeform?

[TheGrandAdmiral]

Freeform, I have no experience with system games.

[Captain Whitebread]

Just saw that in the title. Apparently I can’t read

[TheGrandAdmiral]

No problem, it happens 

[Captain Whitebread]

Name:Shaa Raa
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual.
Physical Description:  Slender but this is hidden by robes.  Fairly typical of a Kel Dor, smaller and less robust than a human. Weight: 68 kg. 149 lbs Height: 1.73 m. 5' 9"
Appearance: No hair, black eyes, not that they are visible behind protective lenses.  Most of his face is covered by a breathing mask.  Others of his species would consider him rather attractive but most humanoid races see him as hideous.
Personality:"A formal education did not prepare me for real life.  It taught me to pilot a ship and plot a course and calculate profit.  It did not teach me to compromise my morals in order to survive.  It did not teach me to fix things without the proper tools.  It did not teach me that, if I wanted to succeed, I needed to get up one more time than I was knocked down."

"It's only illegal if you get caught."

"Power will always belong to the powerful and their only concern is maintaining their position and increasing their power.  They do not see the rest of us as anything other than exploitable assets.    If we want anything, we need to take it for ourselves, from those that already have it.  Then we too can look down on the masses and feel superior."

Shaa Raa has been forced to endure things that he'd never imagines, so he has changed in ways he'd never thought possible.  Once carefree, he is now bordering on paranoid.  Once a risk taker, he now carefully considers the consequences of each action.  Where once he was generous, now he is self-serving.  One thing that hasn't changed is his stubborn pride.  He would rather suffer in squalor than contact his family to admit that he was unable to survive on his own away from home.

Surprisingly, despite his selfish nature, he's also quite social.  He has to be, because it's difficult to eat a discarded droid or speeder bike.  When required, Shaa Raa can call upon a great deal of charisma and has a gift for haggling.  He's been able to survive for four years by discovering who he can trust and who he cannot.  It's been a hard lesson but he's become quite good at it.
Likes:
Dislikes:
Profession:Information Broker, Merchant/Trader, reconditioner of weapons, vehicles and droids and other stray sundries. Known neutral party for arbitration
Affiliation and Rank:Self interested
Equipment and Weapons:
Attire Worn:
- Prefers to wear simple dark robes. He's not trying to impress anyone.
Weapons:
Heavy Blaster stashed on his speeder
Blaster at his right hip, outside the robes
Sporting Blaster in a concealed shoulder holster
A vibro knife at his left hip, outside the robes
A vibro sword hilt up between his shoulder blades, under his robes
Vehicles:  A beat up speeder bike that is on its last legs
Lives in a derelict D9 Rigger freighter in what is essentially an old forgotten starship graveyard near the starport.  Even if it could fly, it's over 1000 levels down with no clear path out.
Inventory:
The belt includes; pouches for holding various things, including extra power cells , general tools. Spare breathing mask (damaged), 6 months filters.
two Loader Droids
two Astromech Droids (R2 units in R5 frames)
- An old ID Card (the picture on the card is of a Kel Dor without a breathing mask)

Skills: Piloting (Space and Speeder) - by no means a professional degree of skill
-Navigation - by no means a professional degree of skill
- Small Arms - more skilled than average but by no means a soldier
- Melee Combat - more skilled than average but by no means a soldier
-Logistics - highly skilled
- Negotiations/Haggling - highly skilled
-Gambling - Skilled
- Engineering (Ships, Weapons and Droids) - professional degree of skill
-Linguistics - Understands many of the more common alien languages but only speaks Kel Dor and Galactic Basic.  He uses a vocalizer to translate his words into languages he can't speak, like Wookie or Trandoshan.
Bio:
Dreams:Return to his former degree of wealth without anyone's help.
Nightmares:Having to contact his father in order to bail him out of some debt that is beyond his own ability to weasel out of.
Sinking so far into the beast's belly that he'll never come out.
Contacts:Hundreds of contacts, both low level and mid, ranging from legitimate to black maket.  He has one or two higher level contacts that would not go out of their way for him but are more than willing to make money off his back.

History: Shaa Raa was the third son of a Kel Dor merchant wealthy enough to be able to afford his own ships.  Unlike his father, Shaa Raa was lazy.  Spoiled by his father's wealth, he spent his time gambling and carousing.  To teach his son a lesson, his father sent him out to learn his trade as a crewman on one of his ships.  After protesting to no avail, he left his parents and his sister behind and reluctantly shipped out on one of his father's trade missions.  Much to his own surprise, Shaa Raa took to space like a fish to water.  He quickly learned all aspects of the ship, from piloting to maintenance.  He showed a knack for dealing with people.  He might have followed in his father's footsteps except for a chance encounter.  After a successful trade mission, Shaa Raa fell back on old habits.  He was out carousing and, sure of victory in a game of chance, bet a year of his life against the pot.

He lost.

He spent a year serving essentially as a slave to the other gambler, a human rogue by the name of Akbar Sandford.  They traveled the galaxy and Shaa Raa learned more in that year than he had in all the years  previous.  His keen mind and nimble fingers absorbed everything Sandford taught him, whether he was helping him clean up at the gaming tables or how to use a blaster to protect his 'owner'.  When the year was over, Shaa Raa looked at Sandford and informed him that he would like to go home.

The human laughed.  "Then go," he said, knowing full well that Shaa Raa had no way of getting off Coruscant.

"How?" asked the Kel Dor.

"Not my problem," Sandford replied, turning to walk away.

Shaa Raa learned one other thing that day;  how it felt to kill a man who had been using him for a year, all the while pretending to be his friend.

It's been four years from that day.  Shaa Raa is too proud to ask his father for the money to book passage home.   He's been scraping by, winning enough to keep himself alive and supplied with the breathing filters he needs to live.  He's been scavenging, rebuilding droids and vehicles.  He's not sure now that he wants to go home.  He's been living in the belly of the beast so long that he's starting to enjoy it.  He still wants wealth, however... LOTS of wealth.

One thing is for certain; Shaa Raa is never going to let anyone use him against his will ever again.  It won't stop him from using others.  In fact one of his goals is to earn enough to be able to afford a set of Twi'lek twins or maybe a pair of Togruta.    Surprisingly, he's sided against the Empire that encourages the slave trade he seeks to use as a mark of his success.  His reasoning is simple:  He's not one of them.  As a non-human, he's considered a second class citizen and, coming from the wealth and privilege he once enjoyed, that is something he will simply not tolerate.

False Identities: Not so much a false identity but rather an abandoned one.

[TheGrandAdmiral]

Ooh, a good choice! People rarely pick a Kel Dor. Approved.

[Captain Whitebread]

I considered a couple of species.  I didn't want a traditional slave race, a human or one of the small species.

[TheLaughingOne]

Interested! Will try and get a sheet worked up,

[FroggyBoi]

Is this dead? I would be interested.

[TheGrandAdmiral]

Well, I am still recruiting, though don't know whether Captain Whitebread is still interested.

[Captain Whitebread]

Truthfully I’d forgotten about this game, having heard nothing. I’m still here though. Waiting patiently for a couple more players.

[FroggyBoi]

Would it be okay for me to play a somewhat Force-capable character? I was thinking of a character who had just started training with a Jedi and the Jedi was hunted and killed by the Empire. No lightsaber or great powers or anything, but some potential and a little bit of Force ability.

Here's a work in progress character sheet.


Name:
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Bicurious
Physical Description: Mirialan
Appearance:
Personality: Easy going on the surface, but not unaware of the reality of things.
Likes:
Dislikes:
Profession: Previously learning under a Jedi, now hiding out in the Imperial City working as a waitress many floors below the surface.
Affiliation and Rank:
Equipment and Weapons: A vibroblade sword kept in her small appartment, a normal blade kept in her boot, and a small blaster pistol kept hidden in her waistband.
Skills: Either computers or medical training and some amount of Force usage
Bio:

[Captain Whitebread]

It specifically says NO FORCE USERS

[TheGrandAdmiral]

I am sorry if that is a deal breaker for you, but I prefer it to be a bit like Rogue One. Having a Force user in the group gives an unfair advantage.

[FroggyBoi]

Oh shit, I'm a dummy. I'll figure something else out then.

[ff]

Character submission

Name: Engela Valk
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Bisexual
Physical Description: 5'10", naturally azure-blonde hair, crystal-blue eyes with violet flecks, pale complexion, slender build. She's human, but the hair and eye color might be due to some distant alien blood or a local mutation in her remote tribe of humans.
Appearance: Prefers light, aerodynamic clothing to minimize weight and maximize maneuverability. Sometimes bears wearable flightsuits / flightpacks.
Personality: Often quiet, but quick to laugh, and has a risque sense of humor. A bit of a 'space cadet' and can get lost in thought, or be forgetful, and thus come across as bimbo-y, but it actually fairly intelligent.
Likes: The feel of rushing wind or water, high places, flying, the need for speed, sweet foods and fine libations, absurdist or scandalous jokes and gossip, cute creatures/animals. Has an oral fixation, and an exhibitionistic streak.
Dislikes: Boredom, Imperial control (well she thinks she hates it but at the personal level she has a submissive streak she may or may not be consciously aware of yet), bad or overly-catchy music. Has a love-hate relationship with being groped (occupational hazard of Coruscant nightlife establishments). 
Profession: Medic, courier, cabaret dancer
Affiliation and Rank: None officially, but is under the thumb of (pays protection money to) certain Coruscant underworld elements
Equipment and Weapons: Engela maintains a modest rooftop flat in Coruscant, where she keeps an improvisational medical clinic, and several portable medi-kits that can be strapped to her thighs, chest, or back. She also keeps several small- or wearable- aviation craft, including an aerial speeder bike (of a type that's a common site on the skylanes of Coruscant traffic), a jetpack, heli-turbine wings, and two sets of avian-like mechanical wings (one set which flaps and glides like a large bird of prey, the other which flaps very rapidly like a hummingbird). They have simple drone-like auto-pilot functionality and with remote communicators, Engela can tell them to go places she already knows well (such as sending them back to her apartment, or calling them to her position). Engela has a pair of laser pistols (she's a decent but not professional-gunslinger level shot) and her favorite boots can deliver taser-like shocks that can stun some human-or-smaller size creatures and people (but are weaker than a storm trooper electro-baton).
Skills: Healing and medical knowledge for the more common humanoid species. Some knowledge of mechanics, robots, and repair (mostly to do with medical prosthetics such as mechanical hands, small/wearable aviation machines, repairing small medical devices such as liquid bandage applicators, and after-market modifications of certain intimate mechanical toys). Some martial arts skill from her time as a cadet, mostly used defensively to keep aggressive spectators and stalkers at bay.
Bio: Engela hails from the remote world of Zeffo - a windswept and semi-frigid place of oceans and mountains. She grew up in an unremarkable fishing village, apprenticing as a healer, and wished it had stayed unremarkable. Imperial presence drastically increased in the region, on rumors of artifacts left by that planet's vanished ancient civilization (and further when a rogue padawan, who had apparently survived Order 66, was sighted exploring ruins and presumably seeking the same treasure). Engela's folk grew impoverished and hard-pressed due to Imperial supply requisitions, labor conscripts, taxes, draconian punishments, and environmental despoiling. Soon working for the Imperials themselves was the only sure way to keep one's belly fed, so Engela signed on as a field medic for the Imperials (whose troopers were often injuring themselves after provoking the local apex predators or stumbling on the craggy terrain).

She unwittingly became part of an experimental field unit on Zeffo, which prototyped and practiced early jetpack-Trooper equipment and tactics. The strategy drills focused on using wearable flight units for Trooper roles such as scouts, couriers, and medics, with the strategic vision that flying medics would, even in impassable terrain, be able to quickly get to injured Troopers to render aid or extract them.

Although the Empire (and its future remnants) would later deploy jetpack-Troopers as soldiers at some scale, the flying medic project was officially abandoned when the Empire's accountants calculated that the cost of the flight gear and training wasn't worth saving a few Trooper lives by rendering aid faster; it was cheaper in the long term to just clone or recruit more Troopers to replace the fallen.

Engela was discharged (she'd never become a real Storm Trooper, just an irregular conscript used for field nursing, experiment flight drills, and earning a bit of extra credits and food scraps by dancing or singing for the 'real' troopers). She was left with no real economic prospects in her home region, and with most of her village and extended family already decamped for this reason, had no real reason to stay.

She found (or rather, had a hand in) the improper disposal of some medical and flight equipment that was supposed to be disassembled and sold for parts, or destroyed for secrecy. She took/stole what she could, and bartered for passage to somewhere more thriving - Coruscant. She'd loaded her things into a tiny spacecraft, which she in turn parked in an interstellar cargo barge, although she had to pawn off the spacecraft itself to pay for the passage and for her modest flat in Coruscant. 

In the urban capital, she makes credits taking jobs as a courier (often airborne), where she's learned not to ask too many questions about the parcels or people she's delivering (she's pretty sure it involves weapon- and drug-running, and that most of the people she ferries are high-end escorts being taken to and from clients). She also acts as a house call (or alley call) medic, paid to take calls for urgent aid needed at certain places or times (often involving those who would rather not drag themselves to more official medical facilities, like underworld characters injured in their hazardous professional duties). Sometimes she treats people at her apartment (often charity cases she just ran across on the street), but is cagey about who she lets learn where her 'aerie' is. Usually this 'inpatient' cases are folk like street urchins who need a patch up and a good meal, or young women who've been roughed up or gotten addicted to something. Engela's had a few brief and passionate relationships with other young women she's nursed (and one point of contact for her medical supplies who had 'gotten high on her own supply'), but nothing that's lasted.

She also earns credits working as an acrobatic cabaret dancer (sounds nicer than 'stripper', but that's what she is). This last is not really for the modest wage, but also how she pays her 'protection money' to the local ruling crime syndicate, in the form of time and labor dancing and stripping, so that she's allowed to live and work relatively independently otherwise - and occasionally it really does mean 'protection', since crime syndicates tend not to like it when other people or gangs try to manhandle, kidnap, or steal from their dancers, contract medics, and other pawns. (Engela also enjoys some sororal camraderie with other dancers, and has had one torrid relationship, but there's also a lot of drama and catty dressing room politics).

Engela has dreams of putting enough credits aside to move again, somewhere less stifling than an Empire-choked city-planet but less desolate than her abused home world. But for now it's just that, a dream. 

[Captain Whitebread]

‘Rooftop’ is a relative term on Coruscant

And I think the term you are looking for is Pansexual. Poly suggests multiple partners at the same time.

Shaa Raa refurbs droids, vehicles and weapons. Maybe he’s repaired one of her flight rigs?

[ff]

‘Rooftop’ is a relative term on Coruscant

Haha, it did sound a little bit 'mundane' but idk what else to call it (and 'top level' sounded too upmarket / luxurious like a penthouse, I wanted more the connotation of those dingy NY rooftops with sunbathing women and red solo cup get-togethers and maybe a crappy little rooftop garden, but sci-fi)

And I think the term you are looking for is Pansexual. Poly suggests multiple partners at the same time.

Ah right, I'll just put bi (not that she wouldn't go for a poly situation, but it's not like it's her specific orientation)

Shaa Raa refurbs droids, vehicles and weapons. Maybe he’s repaired one of her flight rigs?

That's a great idea!

[Captain Whitebread]

Glad you like the idea.

He also wants to get the hell off the planet but he’s a long way from getting his hands on a ship.

Love the idea of all the different flight rigs as well as the explanation as to how she got them. Wouldn’t happen to have been inspired by Falcon, would you?