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May The Invisible Hand Be With You - (Star Wars CK2-Style Quest)

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Jack_Trade said:
Oh God, the salt in Dooku quest would be legendary.
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Imagine the reaction to the dinner. She shows up with Thrawn, reveals she knows about Sidious, then fights him evenly for a bit until he starts throwing lightning. The update ends on the choice to ally with her, forcing a confrontation with Sidious later, or try to kill her here and now, unsure of how much she's holding back or what backup she has arranged.
 
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HavocKeeper said:
Imagine the reaction to the dinner. She shows up with Thrawn, reveals she knows about Sidious, then fights him evenly for a bit until they he starts showing lightning. The update ends on the choice to ally with her, forcing a confrontation with Sidious later, or try to kill her here and now, unsure of how much she's holding back or what backup she has arranged.
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And everyone unanimously decides on the former, because if she brought Thrawn the backup is more than we could possibly handle.
 
Max Uristwell said:
And everyone unanimously decides on the former, because if she brought Thrawn the backup is more than we could possibly handle.
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And all this happened because they voted to help out the slightly shady businesswoman way back when.

Wouldn't that be a shock, especially considering the last time she showed up was near the start of the Clone Wars when she was pracically nothing (that they knew of) and certaily wasn't strong enough to match Dooku, even temporarily.
 
I was thinking of a negaverse chargen screen and came up with some choices:

A time a change is upon the galaxy. Choose your destiny, rule well.
-Also Beware of Butterflies-

[] Sheev Palpatine
You are Darth Sidious, Lord of the Sith and current Senator of Naboo. You have killed your master Darth Plagius, and ascended to Master of the Dark Side instead of apprentice. Your plan to rule the galaxy had begun. While Queen Amidala has escaped from Naboo you can use this to become the Supreme Chancellor or the Republic. The foolish Jedi cannot even sense your presence, and this position will allow you to use the very Republic they seek to protect aide in their extermination.
Pros:
-Master of the Dark Side. You are a master of the dark side of the force, and your only rival for power in the force currently might be Yoda. No one else. You have mastery over all basic neutral and dark force abilities as well as many advanced dark side force powers.
-Shroud of the Dark. You have some control of a force technique to interfere with light side force users detecting you.
-Supreme Chancellor. You are the Supreme Chancellor of the republic; as such you have access to an astounding amount of resources.
Cons:
-Master of the Dark Side. The Jedi will kill you if they find you. Stay hidden from them. The Jedi temple is also quite close to where you will be spending a great amount of time.
-Supreme Chancellor. You will need to spend more effort to go unnoticed as a very public figure.
-Mustache Twirling Evil. The fact you are an evil megalomaniac will be reflected in your choices available, and certain write-ins will be vetoed due to incompatibility to your character.
-Manifest Destiny. Your end goal is and will be the extermination of the Jedi and ruling the galaxy- you don't get to change this.

[]Count Dooku
Your are Count Dooku of Serreno: former Jedi and the apprentice of Darth Sidious. The current corrupt form of the republic can only be corrected by force. The formation of the CIS is but one step on the way to rule the galaxy in the way it should be done. The Jedi think they are in control- the fires of revolution will disabuse them of this notion.
Pros:
-Lost 20. Your have the power and mastery of the force befitting a Jedi Master.
-Apprentice of the Two. You have access to some basic dark side force powers and a teacher in your Master; Sidious. If you can get him to teach you that is.
-CIS Leader. You rule the CIS in all but name, as a bonus you can even do some evil publicly without major backlash.
Cons:
-Lost 20. The Jedi know who you are, and they keep tabs on you.
-Public Darksider. The Jedi are not happy with your public declarations of embracing the dark side.
-Apprentice of the Two. You have a literally evil boss who can kill you quite easily at the moment. He will send you orders and directives from time to time. One day you will need to kill him.

[]Senator Amidala
You are the new Senator for Naboo. Your current goals are to rebuild your home, get justice for it, and to try to stop such things from happening in the future. At least you have allies in your goals: the Jedi (at least Kenobi and Skywalker) who are willing to help, and the new Chancellor is your predecessor so at least he will understand what you need to do. You hope you can fulfill your responsibilities to your planet well.
Pros:
- Friends in High Places. You have contacts in the Jedi, Senate, and with the Supreme Chancellor. While you do not want to overuse this this your connections are an incredible tool.
Friends in Low Places. Lady Ciran has helped rebuild Naboo, and offered her advice. She is a cynic, and you have no idea how she gets all the information she has, but it can help. She will tease you though.
Cons:
-Force Null. Your are not force sensitive. Beware force users.
Friends in Low Places. Lady Ciran is your friend and can randomly make you loose a personal action if she thinks your are overworking yourself. Your guards won't stop her if they think your need a vacation.

[]Nute Gunray
You are the head of the Trade Federation. You also lost a battle recently, but you can make a comeback, you always do. Your ... friends should be able to help you out. Make yourself a legacy fit for legend no matter what other say.
Pros:
-Trade Federation. You have the resources of the trade Federation.
-Friends in Low Places. You have shady, criminal, and (probably) evil contacts. You can appeal to them for help.
-Separatist Sympathies. Some of those who are not fond of the current policies of the republic are have mentioned opportunities might be available for you.
Cons:
-Force Null. Your are not force sensitive. Beware force users.
-Public Criminal. Your are currently on trial. Bad starting position, lots of people really dislike you.
-Friends in Low Places. Some of your (evil) friends might require you to do them favors.
 
I'm running a tabletop Star Wars game that's roughly in the Shadows-of-the-Empire era. Given recent events in it, I have a What-If question for all y'all, because I need your expertise:

Given a squad of player characters including a Sabine Wren-expy, a Tony Stark-expy, a Rocket Raccoon-expy, a Sans-expy, and a Jedi-negotiation-school-dropout [improving with the personal training of a Daniel-Craig-Bond-style Jedi] becoming more Revan-like (including the ability to speak and read Ancient Sith and Cheunh)...all of whom on the side of the Rebels and at about the competence level of RotJ Han or Luke...

A) If they support a Thrawn coup d'etat with the additional aid of the movie characters (possibly at Endor near the second Death Star?)...how likely is that to work, given that he's suggested he could be interested in that if he had sufficient support? For this, assume they've eliminated Evir Derricote, Delak Krennel, Ennix Devian, and Zsinj.

B) If they outright recruit Thrawn and a small fleet, what changes with regard to Endor and second Death Star?

Feel free to answer me by PMs or in-thread.
 
Tough. Isard is the head of Imperial Intel, and she's a hardcore Palpatine supporter, to the point where she's legitimately in love with him. So subverting the Empire's intelligence apparatus is basically impossible, which makes pee-positioning the people you need for a coup hard. Second, the Fleet at Endor is basically what the Empire could "lose" without making it obvious to the Rebels that a secret fleet was being positioned to jump them. Thus the Empire had to balance the chance of being discovered with retaining enough firepower to hold a decisive advantage over the Rebel fleet. If another fleet defects to the rebels, the calculus for Endor changes, and the fleet numbers probably rise a bit. And Mara Jade is planted right in front of the shield generators or something to make sure they hold.
 
For A) May work best post-Endor with much of the Imperial Command structure gutted and the Emperor dead with the fracturing of the Empire you would be more in the spot of assuming control of a portion that has fractured, an Imperial Remnant if you will. Also as mentioned above Isard is a key player that would have to be killed to take over the Empire as a whole- which as an Alien would be tough to do.

B) Depends on where the fleet they recruited them is, the Empire is large enough that they could turn a fleet out in the rim and not be noticed for a while, more so if they make proper check ins. That with Thrawn kind of being in infrequent contact would let them be able to plan with Ackbar (and isn't that a scary thought of those two planning an attack together) and the fleet could jump in as additional forces for the rebel fleet. While it may annoy the Emperor, his huburis, plus possession of both an active Death Star and the Executor plus the rest of the large fleet they had gathered would see him play out his part the same way. Difference would be in if all the actions carry out the same (or if you are rolling for progress). Also keep in mind in one of the Tales of books there was a rebel X-wing that had set a collision course with the shield generator, and only pulled up because Solo belw it up before he could ram it, so there are other possible ways for the shield generator to be taken down.
 
You all asked for it.

Mr. Boojum said:
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*Snip of Chapter*
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"Call it sentiment for a teacher, call it gratitude towards the man who saved my life, or if you want to be cynical call it not wanting to lose a potential ally," Ciaran said, "but I don't want to kill you. I don't blame you for trying to blackmail me; I would have done the exact same thing in your position. I don't blame you for sending assassins after me, because again I probably would have done the same. Instead of killing each other for absolutely no gain whatsoever we can-"

Suddenly a loud ringing came from Ciaran's comlink. Activating it a holographic image of a Watcher appeared.

"Ma'am, we received Thrawn's distress signal and we're almost ready to-"

"Ignore that extraction order, it's no longer necessary."

"Uh...ma'am are you sure? This came directly from Thrawn himself and you specifically told us-"

"To treat it as though it had come from me, I'm well aware. The situation has changed and that order is no longer relevant. Am I clear?"

"Y-yes ma'am."

The comlink went dead as Ciaran looked at Dooku again, his expression unreadable. "Come now," she said, "did you seriously expect me to walk in here without a backup plan?"

You hadn't. You also hadn't expected her to know of Sidious, though. Your mind is a whirl and you can barely think. There are too many possibilities to consider in such a short time. In the end this will have to be a quick decision. What will you do?

[ ] Attack - She knows too much and Palpatine has too much power. You can't go against him to ally with such an unknown.
[ ] Step Down - … But then again Ciaran has always been full of surprises. An alliance with her might be enough to overthrow your master.
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TheParasite said:
… What!?
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Crimson Nova said:
Let me get this straight …

  1. She has Grievous.
  2. She has Thrawn.
  3. We assume she also has Jango Fett in her pocket.
  4. She leads the CNS; a Canon non-entity who we shouldn't have any need to care about but what is now the third party power to this whole war.
  5. All of our attempts to either dispose of her or drag her through the mud have miraculously failed.
And now we find out she is able to go saber to saber with us? The dueling master? The one who taught her!?

I'm sorry Boojum, but when did you find it acceptable to shit out this Mary Sue? This is the last straw. I demand an explanation.
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Serdna011 said:
I've got to agree with Crimson here, Boojum. Where did Ciaran, someone who I thought you were making out to be the midboss, suddenly turn into a possible endboss?
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The Federalist Papers said:
We were already grumbling due to her non-canon status, but things have gone off the rails in ways we haven't actually accounted for. Since Ciaran is obviously not a Palpatine plot gone rogue, what is she? Where did she come from?

The backstory you gave us was that she was supposed to have been a Coruscant street urchin who waltzed her way into higher society and who we, for a laugh admittedly, taught her matukai. We accepted this because she was Miraluka.

Eventually she grew into this intelligence mastermind who we can't seem to beat. We control the CIS. Palpatine himself is annoyed with her and told us to deal with her. On a lark, we invited her to trap and deal with her in someway.

We succeeded. We got a high roll. Now we're in a life or death situation with someone who is obviously not who we thought she was. Why?
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Mr. Boojum said:
Fine. Fine. You want explanations?

The simple explanation is bad rolls for you, good rolls for her and then you ignored her when she had picked up even more steam until it was too late to put her down early.

Long explanation? Sit down, this will take a while.

Remember Naboo and how that turned out slightly wrong? The Gungans being known and the Nabooans managing to put up actual resistance against the Trade Federation before getting stomped? This was early days in the quest when you were still hemming and hawing over whether to still jump ship from the Jedi Order, but it was noticeable.

The Trade Federation rolled only mid-tier. >70 would see exactly canon happen. If I remember correctly, they rolled in the low 50s. I needed a reason for this and in doing so, I came up with an OC, Ciaran, who was an (at the time) low-time intelligence dealer. She sold them data on Naboo and so they wasted their efforts on ineffective attacks on the Gungans while also profiting off the black market. She was made out to be a double edged sword. I had the idea that she would be either a simple starting nuisance or an asset for you during the early game. In time you could have done whatever you wanted to do with her.

It started out with you seeing her as either a cute pet or "The Latest and Greatest Waifu". After that got old, you then used her to set up the CIS. During one turn she rolled horribly. Critical failure. You were given the option of visiting her that turn and if you rolled high enough you would be able (if you wished) to save her. As you remember, you rolled mid levels (she wound up in a coma) and then you still decided to save her. You could have left her to die but you didn't because "Save the Waifu" won.

The next few turns you did jack shit in regards to her. I think one of you gave the excuse that "She's like, in a coma, dude." I distinctly remember the TvTropes page getting linked.

All during this time background rolls were rolling. The Republic was getting middling rolls. The Jedi Order the same. Your CIS was getting only slightly higher. Canon was on schedule. During a thread conversation about the Clone Wars, the CNS was mentioned. I looked it up and then on a lark I rolled for its creation.

Natural 100

The second order crit roll was middling but, just like Naboo, I still had to think how. And exactly like Naboo I chalked it up to Ciaran. She was an intelligence dealer, you had brought her in on your Outer Rim building mission so I would think someone like that would be smart enough to see the writing on the walls. I wrote her in as the CNS backer instead of Satine.

Now let's go through the people she now owns.

Grievous: Your roll bombed. The Huks bombed. The Kaleesh rolled high. How? Like a good crutch, Ciaran was there. You shrugged your shoulders and moved on. A few of you actually enjoyed the "Huks Gate" event in the rumor mill.

Thrawn: To be perfectly honest, this was because of a background roll Ciaran had. Ciaran has consistently had high (I mean high) background rolls with everyone else getting the usual middling. You get rolls in the 60s-70s? She gets them in the 80s-90s. I am not kidding. There have been two times where she has gotten a multi-order Crit. One turn that happened and the event table roll wound up on Thrawn.

Yes, I have an event table where I roll for particular things. Thrawn was on the "multi-order crit" list for anyone. Republic, Jedi, Palpatine, you, anyone. Ciaran got him.

So when you all had panic attacks with an "Unknown blue-skinned, red-eyed alien joining the CNS", it's because of that roll.

Now to understand Jango, we need to go over Geonosis. We all know how that shit show happened. Overall, that was still a okay story arc for you but the rolls of that arc (which I had you roll) were ehhh. 60s on average. I threw in Ciaran because by that time she was on your screen and well known to the Trade Federation. When given the option to include her, you called her to join Geonosis. But the cincher in that whole event was the 23 for her effect on the meeting and the 91 for the Jedi Order.

As I said before when you got salty then, those two rolls came out to be Ciaran tipping off the Jedi.

So now onto Jango proper. You rolled poorly to keep him so he became a free agent again. So it's the Clone Wars and new parties get involved which means new background rolls. The Death Watch fail their first few rolls badly. Ciaran gets high ones still. Remember that at this time she's sinking her claws into the CNS and Thrawn was now on the map under her control. Before this, you did nothing other than blackmail her into working for you. Middling level at that.

Guess who? Ciaran rolls another crit again. Her event this time is getting Jango.

After this, you rested on your laurels and instead of getting back with Jango during the limited time offer (limited time because of Ciaran's high roll), you instead decided to get rid of Ventress because she was acting out. That roll was so low that you hit one point under the passing on an easy roll. She "died" and your subsequent actions on finding her also failed and pointed to her death. You're still uncertain even now because she is just nowhere to be found.

So Jango is now tied with Ciaran.

CNS? High rolls for both them and Ciaran. You do nothing because they're "Neutral."

Your attempts against Ciaran? All failures due to low rolls. You crit failed the blackmail roll.

So in the end, Ciaran is as powerful she is because of wasted opportunities on your part, high rolls in the background, and low rolls for you.

And in the end you are still a stronger player in some aspects and good decisions in the future can change your current position for the better.
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H.U.N.K. said:
Mr. Boojum said:
...and good decisions in the future can change your current position for the better.
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WE'RE DOOMED!!
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TheParasite said:
Huh … Well, hmm … Okay, that's understandable. I don't like it, but understandable.
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VirtueNetworks said:
Background rolls? Really?

First they fuck us over in VisionPriest's quests and now here?

Fuck background rolls!
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Serdna011 said:
VirtueNetworks said:
Fuck background rolls!
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You said it ...
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The Federalist Papers said:
Wait, if Ciaran and a lot of the things tied to her have been getting high rolls on average … couldn't that also rollover onto us if we side with her?
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CalmGiver said:
The Federalist Papers said:
Wait, if Ciaran and a lot of the things tied to her have been getting high rolls on average … couldn't that also rollover onto us if we side with her?
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Really, Federalist? Really?
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The Federalist Papers said:
CalmGiver said:
Really, Federalist? Really?
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So I made an unintentional pun? So what?
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ChibiRose said:
Does anyone listen to me when I say we shouldn't pick Federalist's plans? NOOOOOOOOOO~.

[X] Attack - She knows too much and Palpatine has too much power. You can't go against him to ally with such an unknown.

*The Federalist Papers likes this.*
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Crimson Nova said:
Still, as much as we hate it, he still has a point. If this Mary Sue is getting such high rolls, then I want to be on her train.

[X] Step Down - … But then again Ciaran has always been full of surprises. An alliance with her might be enough to overthrow your master.
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Serdna011 said:
Nope, let's deal with her permanently right now while we can.

[X] Attack - She knows too much and Palpatine has too much power. You can't go against him to ally with such an unknown.
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TheParasite said:
My reasoning, besides weird statistics, is screw Palpatine.

[X] Step Down - … But then again Ciaran has always been full of surprises. An alliance with her might be enough to overthrow your master.
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VirtueNetworks said:
Here's hoping it's the right choice ...

[X] Step Down - … But then again Ciaran has always been full of surprises. An alliance with her might be enough to overthrow your master.
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TheLadyBoss said:
*Mad Cackles*

[X] Step Down - … But then again Ciaran has always been full of surprises. An alliance with her might be enough to overthrow your master.
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Excellent! I love negaverse, and yeah it does cause some thought on how a non-cannon actor came to be in another quest. Then again there are some GMs (torroar for one) that generate a ton of background characters and have them and other powers doing their own thing in the background of their quests so we could have been that. On top of it, hinting or stating that we were a possible recruitment option they passed up is a good way to salt harvest... and I just realized they do not even know that HK-47 is on our staff. Follow up for whenever that reveal occurs should be great!

MonkeyTypewriter said:
Pretty good. You just need to add that one paranoid poster claiming that she helped Asajji and everyone else telling him to shut up with his silly conspiracy nonsense.
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Hah, that is true, there should be someone wondering as to that.
 
Please, please, do a crit reveal for the negaverse quest finding gout about our inner circle! While the CIS and the Republic were at war Ciran was chasing her lifelong goal:

:p
 
Void Stalker said:
and I just realized they do not even know that HK-47 is on our staff. Follow up for whenever that reveal occurs should be great!
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Publicola said:
I just want to see the Negaverse-quest's reaction when they learn we also have HK-47 working for us... :rofl:
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Maybe next time (if) or maybe someone else can do it for me. Plus I can't think of a reason for them to know of HK-47 until near the end and I'd rather not guess when it comes to the events surrounding that time.

I'll chalk it up to that second multi-order crit.
 
HavocKeeper said:
So who were all the name inspirations? I'm fairly sure The Federalist Papers is Publicola, CalmGiver is me, and ChibiRose is UbeOne, but I can't place the rest.
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Crimson Nova is supposed to be Stroth. I googled his name and found out it's a Star Wars character who was a member of a group called the "Crimson Nova". I found it fitting considering his avatar is also pretty much a Crimson Nova. H.U.N.K. is from Teron back when he had HUNK as his avatar. Serdna011 is Andres110 and TheParasite is yours truly.

"TheLadyBoss" is a mystery.
 
I'm hurt that you ignored me, but I understand that nesting another omake within your omake might be a little much.
 
Killerflood said:
Crimson Nova is supposed to be Stroth. I googled his name and found out it's a Star Wars character who was a member of a group called the "Crimson Nova". I found it fitting considering his avatar is also pretty much a Crimson Nova. H.U.N.K. is from Teron back when he had HUNK as his avatar. Serdna011 is Andres110 and TheParasite is yours truly.

"TheLadyBoss" is a mystery.
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Huh. That's actually the first time I've gotten used for a negaverse. Thanks.

I'll be honest through, that entire chain of logic is a total coincidence.
 
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