Kamda: A Star Wars Story [Meiyo-Q&A]

[Honor]

First and foremost, for those who joined me on this little venture I cannot thank you enough. You all made this so much fun for me, and although there is much I have learned and know to fix now for next time this game has overwhelmingly been a positive experience for me. Thank you, all of you.

Narrative, I think, is my main strong-point when it comes to this experience. However, the game experience I'm still finding my way with. I know what type of GM I want to be and match that but there are a lot of things with managing a forum game that I now know more fully. When it comes time for the next game in this series I hope to work on to get the best experience for as many people as possible.

While we finish up the last of the plot-threads I figured I'd get ahead to posting this so it's good and ready, that the end-game bit doesn't cut too much into the next game.

Once more, thank you all for this experience. None of it could have been possible without your trust in me and I hope I didn't fail anyone in their expectations. You have all been absolutely wonderful, and this will be a positive experience to remember for a long time.

Much love <3

[Honor]

Oh, also, if you wanna know about NPC relationships and stuff. What they thought about you and all that, feel free to ask away!

[Manny Donos]

Wow! That was really great! Thanks for running it for us!

So, this is a huge question, but I could see that there were lots of plotlines. Like, plotlines everywhere! Do you think you could give really brief summaries of them, maybe? Anything that we missed?

Lots of cool NPCs! Did you have a favorite? Did anyone come close to melting Alder Divo's cold heart? Or Vex's? Or anyone else's, for that matter?

Any big lessons learned? "I know what type of GM I want to be". Tell us more about that!

Geez, I really shouldn't hog you. Again, great time, and well done!

[Leah kuso]

If we sell Ravens armour will you keep the game going?

This was an amazing game! Thank you for running, I've loved it.

Did anything happen during the game that you didn't expect?

Was there any plots that didn't get taken up or didn't get completed?

[Raven Cadera]

Thank you for the game!

To be honest, I was not sure what to expect going into a beginner-XP game with this premise, but I ended up being very pleasantly surprised and quickly found myself having a very good time. Some bumps in the road, but I felt they were minor to my overall enjoyment of the game, and I greatly appriciated all the story I got to jump into here. The Mandalorian NPCs were all great to read and interact with. <3

I'm very happy with the game, and I'm also very happy in what you've accomplished, and proud of how much you've grown from our last interaction as GM and Player. <3 You have every reason to be pleased and happy with this.

Looking forward to the next game already!

If we sell Ravens armour will you keep the game going?

*stabs*

Oh, also, if you wanna know about NPC relationships and stuff. What they thought about you and all that, feel free to ask away!

OH YOU KNOW I WANT TO KNOW!!!!

But that might actually be best reserved for either Day 10 or the Epilogue-scene...

[Honor]

Wow! That was really great! Thanks for running it for us!

So, this is a huge question, but I could see that there were lots of plotlines. Like, plotlines everywhere! Do you think you could give really brief summaries of them, maybe? Anything that we missed?

Lots of cool NPCs! Did you have a favorite? Did anyone come close to melting Alder Divo's cold heart? Or Vex's? Or anyone else's, for that matter?

Any big lessons learned? "I know what type of GM I want to be". Tell us more about that!

Geez, I really shouldn't hog you. Again, great time, and well done!

So, personal answer first!

"I know what type of GM I want to be." There's so many good types, and mine I think that I want to get to work here is a little chaotic but I think possible with a player-base as great as this one. My hope is for a game with a lot of rewards, big gains but also the potential for big losses. You might get say, 10,000 credits on a job but then be forced to pay nearly that much to a crime-boss. Or, you might get a cool shiny new weapon but lose it in the process of high stakes combat.

I could always add the easy going, narrative focused nature in there, but those bits are definitely far too broad to give as the only answer. My hope is to accomplish a goal where there's a flux. Always a general plus toward the players but ups and downs that can help drive their personal stories and the main story forward.

Which can be hard, if I'm holding the reins on everything, but I hope by opening up Character Sheets next game and trusting in players to do the right thing I will mitigate that added work-load and get something closer to what works for me and you guys.

For my first foray I liked the idea of more control, but now that I've gotten my bearings I'm happy to let people help out, in a sense, where I need them to.

I could go on for so many other lessons I'm taking from this game, but I think the one I want to note on most is that the plot-lines focused nature of the narrative was a good attempt but ultimately didn't match up to expectation. It was clunky and made the flow of the narrative feel limited by denoting different plot-lines to get into. I think it caused a drop off of steam more than another type of style that surfaced over the course of the game.

Matching that my focus on next game will be pushing forward NPC's who are doing their own thing and will get the players involved should the players want to get involved with them.

Wanna do Jedi stuff? Find and do stuff with Cartess. Mando stuff, find a Mandalorian, though generally it will be more specifically noted on that particular NPC.

NPC's:

I had so many favorite NPC's at different times, I think is the only way I can properly answer that. Mallory was a sudden addition after needing a bodyguard for Vex and finding that image and I fell in love with the way she played off some of the PC's. Vex was very strong early game too, I think I really hit a nail on crime-boss with her. Enough that you didn't hate her but also were aware she was dangerous. A good place for the up and coming crime boss.

Praxton will probably be one of my favorite "just wing it" success stories. Watching the Mandalorians as a group develop was super fun and super great overall. I love so many of their characters, and a big part of that is because I'd planned none of them. I knew who Mandalore was, the type of person he was, and from there decided on the others as a need or drive to show off another came up.

As far as Divo's heart, he is very much a professional. If his heart's on the market, surely I nor anyone else would know. Vex, however, has had a on-again off-again relationship with Grand. Both being not so great people in close proximity they understand one another better than most anyone else really could. Vex is always the one who declares the off-again, which I feel helps define her pretty well.

Plot-lines:
For this game I started with a main five:

The Fugitive: Was aimed at helping the girl, Jaina, get off Kamda after she punched an officer who was quick to make a stink about it. My goal was something light, something wholesome. Just saving a girl from a tough spot put on her by the nature of the Empire. Parents being Non-human being a big catching point for her in her action, something that was revealed much later with Jaxom visiting them. Leah, actually, met one of her fathers first but wasn't aware of it at the time.

The Beauty: Tybalt Pokosta, I'll actually be posting a little fiction to show off what that was all about. We got to a point with it, I had more planned, but honestly looking back I think the overall arc was shaky. So, it's pretty alright it didn't get explored more than it did.

The Jedi: Didn't go down the way I originally planned it. At the start, my thought was that eventually players would get to her. Convince her to come back to the idea of being a Jedi, and then there'd be a big to-do about getting off. She'd help the players off the moon and then go to help some more friends before she could leave. Setting the players toward the End-game without a good and proper Jedi Knight hogging up the hero slot.

The Job: Went down about as I planned. Pass the test. Get the loot, win the day. Idea was to have a lot more conflict and difficulties but time constraints ended up making the whole thing feel plenty complicated on it's own without anything properly complicated mechanically. For the players it was a lot of waiting.. for the characters it's probably the easiest 10k they'll ever make.

The Bounty: Went off perfectly as I hoped. Idea was originally that they were clones turned bandits for the players to take down and bring in but taking inspiration from the animated series not only did they become good and proper clones but also did the whole clone in storm-trooper armor thing. Which I always kinda enjoy. Creating that little family of theirs was a delight.. honestly, I'm surprised I didn't mention them above in the NPC bit now that I think about it!

Beyond that, everything else just came naturally out of player interaction. Plot-lines I had ideas for with Vex wasn't actually what it became and it slowly but surely became a cool idea after cool idea that became something far larger. Nothing like a good ol' hostile take-over plot!

There is honestly so much more I could write here but my fingers are tired from all the clickety clacking!

[Honor]

If we sell Ravens armour will you keep the game going?

This was an amazing game! Thank you for running, I've loved it.

Did anything happen during the game that you didn't expect?

Was there any plots that didn't get taken up or didn't get completed?

Theoretically yes, but it would be devoid of all that juicy content y'all have come to enjoy. I'm fresh out for a bit

A lot of things happened I didn't expect for sure. Trying to think back on some of them is hard, given now that they've happened. On a personal note with Leah, I think one thing I wasn't sure if she would do was the whole big scene with Vex and the Hutt Cartel people. Turns out she did the do!

For the last, I'll direct you to the answer I provided for Manny

Most of them did, I pushed for some like the fugitive at a point, and then the Pokosta one fell to the wayside. Which was a plan in a way, to allow sorta what drew most attraction to become the center of attention.

[Honor]

Thank you for the game!

To be honest, I was not sure what to expect going into a beginner-XP game with this premise, but I ended up being very pleasantly surprised and quickly found myself having a very good time. Some bumps in the road, but I felt they were minor to my overall enjoyment of the game, and I greatly appriciated all the story I got to jump into here. The Mandalorian NPCs were all great to read and interact with. <3

I'm very happy with the game, and I'm also very happy in what you've accomplished, and proud of how much you've grown from our last interaction as GM and Player. <3 You have every reason to be pleased and happy with this.

Looking forward to the next game already!

If we sell Ravens armour will you keep the game going?

*stabs*

Oh, also, if you wanna know about NPC relationships and stuff. What they thought about you and all that, feel free to ask away!

OH YOU KNOW I WANT TO KNOW!!!!

But that might actually be best reserved for either Day 10 or the Epilogue-scene...

That all very much means a lot to hear <3

And yes! That Epilogue scene will certainly help answer some questions!

[Jyrvess Ertil]

Thanks for running the game! I had fun being the kinda spy.

Jyr is happy Divo never took notice of her, but I meant to talk to him at some point. Because uncomfortable Jyr is best Jyr.

Jyr is definitely going to keep contact with Jarvis, he is the right kind of sleezy to be useful to the Rebellion!

BTW what did Jyr hear that she thought was her dad on day 1?

[Honor]

Just a man who sounded somewhat familiar! I felt it was a nice note to touch on. My idea with a lot of those pre-game notes, for where connections weren't possible or didn't come straight to mind, I gave little like pushes from the backstories that would inspire the characters toward the goal of rebellion! From what I saw with Jyr, it felt like the memory of her father was likely to haunt her so in yours I played up on that.

Giving characters a sense of "I should help people instead of sitting back" was my overall goal early game, for sure.

[Tosath Nazora]

I didn't have a whole lot of interactions and scenes, but I enjoyed the ones I did have. Already talked to you about Tosath's position, from an IC and OOC perspective though. But at the same time, I think that overall his arc was kind of appropriate, mostly in the background during the game, focused on how he might be able to help individuals. I think it's appropriate that his story was mostly self contained in this game. It wasn't so different from Chirrut in Rogue One. Certainly not as badass and cool as that character, but present at the beginning, helping out a few folks along the way, and then when the time came he willingly sacrificed himself for the good of others. Though instead of relying on the Force, he relied on drugs.

Stims... the poor man's Force!

I am curious about where the next game and story will be. With the parallel I'm drawing to Chirrut, I'm a bit interested in maybe making a Guardian of the Whills in this timeline.

[Honor]

I'm not totally sure yet myself! I have quite a few ideas where we will be going next but generally we will be entering a more galaxy type setting. Something like Kamda and beyond, other planets and stuff. Planet that Jaxom helped inspire, Bellionas, will likely come into play.

I'm glad you're happy with the character ark, as I mentioned already I thought you played out the end beautifully and for that scene and sacrifice of character. Thank you <3

[Tosath Nazora]

I've been having characters die for bigger causes than themselves more recently as of late. Even when it results in nothing more than a pointless death that has no effect. So it was fun to have a point for his.

[Leah kuso]

Will Vex finally cancel the debt?

[Jyrvess Ertil]

Oh were there any ImpIntel folks on Kamda or just the ISB amateurs.

[Honor]

Leah: Vex will carry that debt as far and as long as she can.

Jyvress: There was one Imperial Intelligence operative I had planned but didn't end up comitting. If it came up through your obligation though I had her ready! The Yin to Divo's Yang.

[Jyrvess Ertil]

Leah: Vex will carry that debt as far and as long as she can.

Jyvress: There was one Imperial Intelligence operative I had planned but didn't end up comitting. If it came up through your obligation though I had her ready! The Yin to Divo's Yang.

Yeah I was dreading the Intel bounty coming up.

[Jyrvess Ertil]

Oh! I also was curious if there was a Tactical Droid in the Separatist base....

If the expedition had happened Jyr would have totally tried to swipe it....

[Honor]

Potentially! Most of the base I was undecided on.. for the one thing I made but don't think I revealed at all: viewforum.php?f=60

[Raven Cadera]

Potentially! Most of the base I was undecided on.. for the one thing I made but don't think I revealed at all: viewforum.php?f=60

Oooo! Interesting!


What else was undiscovered that hasn't been revealed yet?