Ziost - Crown of the Sith Empire

I can answer some stuff, others might wait till Day 11, but have at it as these last few days will be light wrap up given the craziness of the first 8 days.

This go around, who was your favorite NPC to play?

Hrrrm, I think I enjoyed Dracosvina and Darth Arya quite a bit, I also liked the bit part by the duros informant for Tyber.

I liked Tayana when she was bantering with Mahr as well.

Dragon lady is a favorite just because she has gone two games now without a real name.

If the Emperor had killed us all, would he have been defeated off-screen by Zash? Or did you have something else in mind?

Lord Jo'ren Rath wrote:If the Emperor had killed us all, would he have been defeated off-screen by Zash? Or did you have something else in mind?

He would have probably won without much support for Malgus he would have purged the Council and taken the fight to Malgus. The Emperor was in his weakest form when you faced him due Night of Terrors usage.

There was an impossible version but that would have required about 40 points of Night of Terror usage, he got 1 per day for a total of 8 plus whatever the players used.

Shaisha could have defeated him but she never gave in to Valkorian enough for him to take complete control, if she had done so five times then there would have been no freeing her but she would have been a match for the Emperor... well they were the same person so she would have become the new Empress essentially.

There was an outcome for Malgus winning as well.

Did I surprise you by not using Valkorian's power left and right?

Were you surprised by the amount Night of Terrors was used, even when people started to become aware of how bad it could be?

Lord Tenebrous wrote:Did I surprise you by not using Valkorian's power left and right?

Were you surprised by the amount Night of Terrors was used, even when people started to become aware of how bad it could be?

She seemed rather eager at Nar Shaddaa, so I expected a little more.

I was surprised people kept using it after it came to light how dangerous it could be, but hey sometimes you just want to win.

Speaking of winning that was the intent behind the Aspirant challenges was to push to see how far people would go for victory on one hand and or what they would risk. The test of Loyalty was probably the biggest gut punch and had some of the bigger emotional moments.

I was not expecting Kristal or Shaiahsa to not do it, but those would have been rough, Kristal would have been asked to kill Raven Torsin and Shaisha would have been tasked with a more complicated one, the Emperor would have had the Wrath kill Lady Serasai and she could intervene by killing the Wrath sparing Lady Serasai, of course Valkorian would have offered her his power to save them both as an out.

Raela defying the Emperor was poignant though.

The intent with all the challenges was choose your difficulty.

Heh, yeah... Shaisha grew up a lot following Nar Shaddaa (kid of her own and all), and became a bit more cautious and tempered. Being a parent herself suddenly put matters in different perspectives, and she managed to understand more of her father's point of view (or at least, she thinks she does).

That would've been a terrible scenario to deal with though! Much praise for the truly gut-punch twists you had planned there!

Since it seems like the Eagle was (at least initially) a Jadus plot facilitated through Imperial Intelligence, why did you decide not to bring Hala!Watcher-7 into the conspiracy? I could imagine IC reasons being that it was a clandestine operation and the more people involved increases the difficulty of operational security, or a perceived worry that Watcher-7 had been playing the role of Hala Moraal for too long and a concern that she had reverted to being her "mask". As for OOC reasons, just because it could increase the level of PvP conflict if Hala turned traitor to the investigative efforts and tried to sabotage or misdirect it from within?

You tried a few new ideas and variations in this game, do you mind sharing your thoughts on what worked and what didnt?

I did enjoy the switch back to Obligation. As much as it is fun to be rewarded with free stuff for accomplishing things in-game, Duty just feels like a meter to be repeatedly filled where Obligation is something more story-rich to be managed.

Lord Tenebrous wrote:Heh, yeah... Shaisha grew up a lot following Nar Shaddaa (kid of her own and all), and became a bit more cautious and tempered. Being a parent herself suddenly put matters in different perspectives, and she managed to understand more of her father's point of view (or at least, she thinks she does).

That would've been a terrible scenario to deal with though! Much praise for the truly gut-punch twists you had planned there!

Well growth and change was something I was glad to see from many of the returnees.

Col. Hala Moraal wrote:Since it seems like the Eagle was (at least initially) a Jadus plot facilitated through Imperial Intelligence, why did you decide not to bring Hala!Watcher-7 into the conspiracy? I could imagine IC reasons being that it was a clandestine operation and the more people involved increases the difficulty of operational security, or a perceived worry that Watcher-7 had been playing the role of Hala Moraal for too long and a concern that she had reverted to being her "mask". As for OOC reasons, just because it could increase the level of PvP conflict if Hala turned traitor to the investigative efforts and tried to sabotage or misdirect it from within?

I had honestly forgotten that she was a watcher as Nar Shaddaa was about two years ago, and I had originally planned to include Moyr in on the plot in the pre-game but it felt better for Jadus ot play this one close to the chetst and allow Moyr to navigate this on her own, and by extension those outside the close circle that Jadus has put together.

She figured it out though and that may have colored her involvement moving forward.

Another thing is that it seemed to work well for her to be on the “right” side of the law and see the complicated lines meandering through Imperial Intelligence, plus I always enjoy bringing Watcher Five into the mix.

Oh and someone mentioned favorite characters unrelated but anytime I could have Servant Nine in a thread was a joy.

Col. Hala Moraal wrote:You tried a few new ideas and variations in this game, do you mind sharing your thoughts on what worked and what didnt?

I did enjoy the switch back to Obligation. As much as it is fun to be rewarded with free stuff for accomplishing things in-game, Duty just feels like a meter to be repeatedly filled where Obligation is something more story-rich to be managed.

Thank you for reminding me! Was the "I'm Servant Nine, look at me!" a Rick & Morty reference?

How were you expecting things to go down with the Eagle sub plot? Or what contingencies/scenarios did you see happening?

Col. Hala Moraal wrote:Thank you for reminding me! Was the "I'm Servant Nine, look at me!" a Rick & Morty reference?

Indeed it was and I meant to answer that I liked Obligation as well of the the systems we have used.

As for what worked worked I liked building events that had players choose how much they wanted to risk. I always create too many characters, but, eh, that is a personal thing.

Remmington Thalalas wrote:How were you expecting things to go down with the Eagle sub plot? Or what contingencies/scenarios did you see happening?

i think it took a little longer to make a move on Talons but once it did it happened fast, it went about as well as I figured and I liked the concentrated effort.

Thanks a bunch for the game! It's always a treat to play in your Star Wars games. Such fun NPCs, lots of stuff to do.

I didn't play in Korriban because I had too shaky of a grasp on Sith, but I think you provided an environment here where I could experiment with it. Neat!

This is sort of a big picture question... do you have some thoughts where all of this is going? We're significantly off the SWTOR map at this point, with a number of characters vital to the canon story getting killed. Do you have big, big plans? Can you give any hints?

Hey, wanted to thank you for the game. Good job taking this one solo! I'm highly considering helping out for Alderaan... We can talk about it!

Yup, you did a great job doing a herculean feat all by yourself. Just wanted to say thanks for the Plague stuff and creating the opportunities for Sylvain to 'fall forward' as it were. You were super generous with your time and created a fun world to run around it. Really great job!

For those curious, this was the ability Valkorian had for Shaisha, and she could use it after a roll had failed:

Valkorian’s Hand: Once per day, even in event or combat threads, she can allow Valkorian to channel his Force energies through her, this will allow her to succeed at the action with a Triumph and a Despair, the Despair will affect others not herself. If used in combat this will unleash an attack that deals 25 wounds with Pierce 3 and Vicious 5; she will suffer 4 strain for allowing such power to flow through her.

Please note this thread if she allows Valkorian to flow through her.

I also wanted to jump in here and say that you did an amazing job with this game Dapper, I felt engaged the whole time and am already chomping at the bit for Alderaan XD.

Were there any unexpected challenges to GMing one of these games alone? Or were you pretty ready for it? Because honestly you make it look easy when I know it's not.

Thank you for running the game, and putting up with the Skip Tracer depth of once per sessions. I really loved the unnamed Duros informant. It felt like these two had known each other for some time, even without having much screen time.