94

The first long-term role playing campaign I game mastered used the Star Wars Saga Edition ruleset, based off of Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 editon. One of the players saw I had brought the rulebook and dice to a role playing camp (with the intention of reading it and looking cool, rather than actually playing it) and asked if we could play it for a bit. As soon as we'd made some copies of the character sheet we got to character creation. The group's Jedi was a Kel Dor named Kel-Moran. Our pilot was a Human named Wedge. The firepower of the group was brought by the infamous Galak Sempti (which I made according to the player's wishes (namely shoot fast and shoot a lot)). Lastly the group's technical expertise came from the Kel Dor scoundrel, Torin-Dol.

The party first met in a tavern, or rather a cantina on Tatooine (which is basically the same thing). The first roll of the game was an Acrobatics roll used to resolve whether or not Torin-Dol's dancing was good enough to impress the Twi'lek girls. He rolled a crit. The second roll of the game was against Torin-dol's fortitude defence, to determine if the would catch an STD or not. He didn't. And so the rivalry between an inexperienced GM and a character who had really lucky rolls begun.

Later on in their adventures the group picked up several one off companions as friends wanted to try out role playing and left after they decided that it wasn't for them. Two more players stuck with us, Katrina 'Kat' Revkin the human hacker and Corran the Bothan security chief, while Wedge slowly left the group.

The group had several daring escapades. Kel-Moran, together with Kat and Torin-Dol, investigated a dark side cult on a far off moon and encountered the dark Jedi Harkos Jund (during which Kat's player coined the phrase "Yo" which still haunts me today for it's potent ability to interupt any and all dramatic dialogues regarding the nature of good and evil).

During another adventure the group was tasked with transporting a packet that (unknowingly to them) contained an old lightsaber belonging to Kel-Moran's master. Their ship was boarded by pirates who proceeded to steal the package and leave the crew seemingly in peace. It was here that I crafted my best ever cliff-hanger by having a hidden bomb go off while they travelled in hyperspace just as the session ended, leaving them with a broken-down control system to fix before the ship imploded.

They once took a brief 'vacation' of sorts on a civilian space cruiser when their ship needed repairs. Galak Sempti, being the stubborn bastard that he was, refused to leave the sauna at one point and it took the whole group as well as the Jedi's force powers to be able to stand the heat for long enough to have a conversation about leaving. This is a pretty good example of one-half of Galak's talents (the other being having no hesitation when it came to firing off his repeating blaster).

Eventually the group decided to take on the pirates who had stolen the old lightsaber. They found out where the pirate base was and made an attempt at storming it head on. Once inside they were captured and had their equipment stripped away. They staged an escape that got them back their gear and then headed for the control bridge of the space station. They got in the elevator and pushed the button. When the doors opened again the pirates unloaded everything they had at the elevators and killed the party.

All in all it was a fun campaign that ran for at least four years, but with play sessions being confined to a few dates roughly half a year apart. I learnt a lot about preparing for games and that the D20 line of systems is a bit too heavy for my style of game mastering.

============================================

Three weeks ago we heard from Torin-Dol's player that he couldn't bear life any more and that he was saying goodbye. That Thursday we got word that he had passed away.

His departure has left me with an odd feeling. People around me have died before, but this was the first time a friend had gone. Despite not being anywhere near as close to him as I were when we played Star Wars together I've been carrying the odd feeling with me, occasionally 'picking it up' to examine when I have some time to spare that isn't occupied by work or other stuff.

I didn't visit the funeral because I didn't see the point. I'm not religious, or particularly spiritual. Funerals are for the living, in my mind, and I didn't feel like I needed one.

============================================

I wrote this, not to garner sympathy or comfort from people around me. I don't think I'm in mourning as one would typically think of it, with tears and struggles to go on. I wrote this because I guess I wanted to do some final send off. Which, come to think of it, is likely my way of mourning. He's gone and that's that.

I hope you, the reader enjoyed this little piece. If not, well, bummer.

Good bye Torin-Dol.

93

Today was the day. Arthur walked through the door and let the heavy bags fall with a thump onto the wooden floor of the cabin. Outside the low sun of a summer afternoon lit up the spaces between the woodland trees. Inside a few streams of light slipped through the old and heavy curtains. The room had few adornments, just an old pair of antlers that hung above the fireplace and had been there since before he got the cabin. There was a bed with crumpled sheets along the left-hand wall and opposite that was a counter and an old cupboard. The whole place carried a faint scent of rotting wood.
   Arthur left the door hang open behind him, letting in more sunlight, as he strode over to the chair and table that occupied the back wall of the cabin. He sat down and stared intently at what he had in front of him: a gnarled log that he had picked out specifically after the snow melted away some months ago.
   He leaned down and picked up the worn bag that was resting against the leg of the table, brushed off some of the dust that had gathered on it, and opened the clasp. From the bag he produced leather bundle. Unrolling the bundle on the table revealed a set of old woodworking chisels. Slowly his hand wandered along the blades and handles of the tools before settling on one of them. He took a firm grasp of the piece of wood and started working on it. Arthur could feel how, despite how long it had been since last time, his hands quickly got reacquainted with the tools and the material.
   Hours passed. As the last light of the sun were about to vanish he set down the piece on the table in front of him: a wooden sculpture portraying a woman wearing a wedding gown. In her long hair was a string of pearls holding up a rose to the back of her head. Her facial expression was one of a bittersweet smile.
   Arthur leaned back in the chair with a content smile on his face. A few droplets went down his cheek from under his glasses. He put the chisel back with the rest of the tools and returned the bundle to the bag.

Inspiration