White Star: Return of Rocket Wookie

Spring Break brought the opportunity to run several more White Star micro-sessions, both at home and in the car while traveling to see relatives.

The Chase: Rocket Wookie blasted off in hot pursuit of Meez-weez and his mobile takka stand.  We devoted a quick session to the chase, using saving throws and Strength checks where necessary.  In the end, following several near-misses from low-hanging pipes and causeways, Rocket Wookie nabbed Meez-weez, who promised to lead his captor to his secret stash of credits.

Claustrophobic: The next session, which ran less than 15 minutes, began with Meez-weez leading Rocket Wookie through a maintenance hatch and along a series of access tunnels ... predictably trying to escape at every turn.  Despite Meez-weez's efforts and a run-in with some critter related to a mynock, Rocket Wookie was able to catch the slippery gambler and drag him back out of the hatch ... only to find a squad of Imperial stormtroopers investigating the wreck of Meez-weez's takka stand!

Firefight!:  In the next session, Rocket Wookie tossed Meez-weez back through the hatch and began exchanging fire with the stormtroopers.  Under heavy fire, the wookie chose to scoop up the gambler and retreat back down the tunnels just as a stormtrooper tossed a thermal detonator through the hatch.  Stumbling through the smoke and steam, Rocket Wookie took a wrong turn and triggered a system purge, dumping the pair down the drain and into the lightless "Sump Level", deep below the city.

Splashdown:  Only Rocket Wookie's jetpack kept the plummeting pair from certain death as they tumbled toward the surface of the subterranean sludge lake, but to Rocket Wookie's dismay the device began to sputter and malfunction!  Landing hard in the vast cesspool, the wookie's frustrated roar echoed off unseen walls.  Soon, however, a pair of greeninsh lights appeared.  Could they be eyes?  Expecting to be swallowed at any second, Rocket Wookie was surprised when a voice spoke from beyond the light, "Ootu waggit do naka?"  Meez-weez and Rocket Wookie scrambled aboard the odd, little fishing skiff (the lights turned out to be lamps positioned at the bow to draw fish) as the pilot turned his craft back toward his village.

Sha-rat Village: Small, rat-like, reptile men, the Sha-rats built their floating village out of the trash and debris that washed down the drains of the megalopolis far above.  A fierce debate broke out over whether Rocket Wookie and Meez-weez should be considered "fish" or not, and eventually they were brought to the tribal shaman to settle the matter.

The Godhead: In the shaman's shrine a broad pipe projected from the wall, forming the mouth of a huge, stern droid face painted onto the rusty wall.  As the shaman bowed, the face spoke in a surprisingly alto, ordering him and the guards from the shrine.  

It turns out that the droid-head was occupied by Lyn No-moi, a diminutive humanoid who was accidentally washed down from the surface.  Lyn had been hiding out among the Sha-rats until she could find a way back up to the city.  She struck a deal with Rocket Wookie -- if Lyn could help find a way to repair and refuel the jetpack, Rocket Wookie would bring Lyn back up to the city.

Lake Monster: Knuj the Fletchling, a lonely Sha-rat who wasn't a good fisherman but who had a natural affinity for mechanical things, had befriended Lyn and kept her secret (not revealing that she was the source of the droid-idol's voice).  If Knuj could get back to the old Sha-rat village site, he might be able to convert some of the chemicals skimmed from the surface of the scum lake into a crude fuel for Rocket Wookie's jetpack.  The only problem is that the old village site was overrun by a dreadful lake lurker!  So Rocket Wookie, Knuj, and Lyn headed off to the abandoned village to battle the monster (Meez-weez stayed behind, have no appetite for danger), which they were finally able to drive away with the help of Rocket Wookie's one and only grenade.

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Again, much of the fun we are having with White Star is due to the very light rules and the fact that we run a single, quick scene and stop after about 10 minutes.  This free-wheeling, completely improvised approach is like a spice that adds flavor to our regular role-playing fare.

Has anyone else fooled around with micro-sessions?

White Star: Rocket Wookie Strikes Back

I've been continuing to run White Star one-on-one for my oldest kid in a series of single-encounter "micro-sessions" that last between 10 and 25 minutes.

My approach has been to do as little advance planning as possible and to commit as little to paper as possible -- just a minimum to give us continuity on things like names.  So far everything (including character sheets) fits on 3 index cards.

The effect is that the episodes feel like the old Prince Valiant comic strip from the Sunday newspaper: tight little scenes with four-color action, clear conflicts, clear antagonists, and setting that is implied rather than fully described.



Episode II: Rocket Wookie sits across the table from Gargo Frikks [no physical description given] in the back of a dim gambling hall.

"So I hear your tryin' to get off world."

"Mrrr-whurn."

"Well, I might be able to arrange somethin', but it ain't gonna be cheap."

"Rrr-grrrn?"

"Hey, why would I sell you out?  You know I got no love for the Imperials either.  Look, maybe you can help me out wit something in the meantime.  Meez-weez owes me big.  How bout you go see him about paying his debt, and I'll see what I can do."

Episode III: Rocket Wookie has descended from the [yet unnamed] megacity to the subterranean Filter Level [neither of us knew that there was a Filter Level until this scene].  Just around the corner is Meez-weez's mobile takka fricassee stand, catering to the scores of maintenance workers who labor down here [at this point, neither of us know what a "takka" is, but apparently you can eat them].


Crashing and banging come from inside the takka kitchen ... sounds like Meez-weez has customers ...

"You better pay up, Meez-weez!"

"RRRawr!" (Rocket Wookie jets to the corrugated roof of the takka stand, where a pair of tattooed thugs are roughing up Meez-weez)

"What's that?  Hey there's a wookie on the ro--" (thug #1, sticks his head out of the back hatch)

"Whur-uurr-ur!" (Rocket Wookie drops to the street, lifts the thug with a hairy paw, bangs his head on the door frame, and dumps him in the street)

"Gaaa!" (thug #2 leaps off Meez-weez, snatches huge cleaver out of butcher's block, faces off against Rocket Wookie)

"Grr-rarru." (Rocket Wookie deposits the second thug atop his unconscious friend)

"You don't-a hurt a Meez-weez, yeah?  I will a-pay you very soon!" (Meez-weez flips a lever and the magnetically-sealed takka cages pop open!  The interior of the stand is filled with angry, flapping takkas!)

"Muhhr-ruuu" (Rocket Wookie saves vs takka swarm, diving through the hatch in the nick of time)

"Ha!" (Meez-weez fires up the grav-repulsors and the stand lifts off, zooming down the street at break-neck speed)

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White Star's light-weight rules, which are so intuitive for anybody who has either played any version of D&D released prior to 2000 or who has dabbled with D&D retroclones, supports this fast and light style really well!  I think we'll see more of Rocket Wookie in the future.

White Star: Kicking the Tires

On a whim, I recently picked up the White Star RPG by James Spahn and decided to give it a whirl one afternoon.  It's basically OD&D repackaged to run rules-lite Star Wars, Star Trek, Battle Star Galactica, Firefly, or something similar.  I'd already introduced the troops at home to Star Frontiers, and it didn't really grab their attention, but I figured that the familiar mechanics of White Star might make sci-fi roleplaying more accessible for them.


My older kid, who gravitates towards all things brave and noble, thought she'd like to try and play a Jedi (called a "Star Knight" in White Star).  Their prime requisite is wisdom, which fits pretty well as these guys essentially work like clerics, so as she starts her 3d6 stat rolls she's hoping for a decent score there ... and her first toss (strength) is a natural 18, something I've only ever seen happen once or twice before.

"Um, I think you're going to end up with a mercenary or an alien brute, honey."

"What's that?"

"An alien brute?  Oh, you know, any big, tough alien-type ... like a wookie.  They sort of do the same job as dwarves in this."

Well that pretty well sealed it.  Dex and Wisdom both came in pretty modest while Con was up in the bonus range.  Definitely alien brute material.

Her next really defining characteristic came when she was rolling for starting money (credits) ... again, the old 3d6 x 10 that I've been using since the 1980s and which comes without pause for thought.  A 16! That's one well-heeled wookie!

Looking over the rules, we realized that a high-strength wookie in hand-to-hand combat could be more lethal than blaster fire!  The problem would be, how to get him/her into the fight quickly?

"I want the jet pack!"

That didn't leave enough money for a blaster, but she could afford a single concussion grenade and a pouch to keep it in.

"Okay, so you are approaching the space port, looking for a way to get off world because wookies are outlawed here.  You round the corner and there are two storm troopers!  [rolling] You are very close.  Roll for surprise! [rolling]  Okay, looks like you have surprise.  Do you want to fight or run?"

"G-d-d-d-rrawwwrr!"

The wookie's attacks buffeted the storm troopers without cracking open their armor, and stuck in melee they couldn't make proper use of their blasters without risking hitting each other.


White Star doesn't have morale ratings for NPCs (a really important rule in old school D&D-style games), but Spahn made the very clever suggestion of using a single, unified saving throw to do double-duty.

I figured that, surprised by an angry wookie, a morale check was in order.  The troopers bolted, one of them failing them badly enough that I ruled he had dropped his weapon in his panicked flight.

A successful first outing for White Star and Rocket-Wookie!