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<     Episode 2586: Under the Pump

Episode 2586: Under the Pump

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Permanent link to this strip: http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/2586.html

Time pressure. Your games should usually include some form of time pressure.

Exploring can be a leisurely affair if you have all the resources you need and can rest in between every encounter, and there's nothing you particularly need to get done other than look around at your own pace.

This is why you should track resources, so the party is in danger of running out if they take too long. You should make the enemies reactive, so if the party tries to take a rest to recuperate, the enemy hordes attack with a coordinated counter-offensive. Whatever you're looking for should have a deadline on it - you need the Magic MacGuffin of Medicinal Might to save the king's daughter's life before she succumbs to the evil witch's withering curse. You can't afford to spend an extra hour resting or lollygagging or whatever. You need to bash that door down now, while you're half depleted, otherwise far worse things will hit the fan.

Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)

Just jump down Wedge, Finn will catch you! Or if not, you can always just land on his head. There really doesn't seem to be any reason Wedge can't simply escape this way as well; perhaps the movie has this character as wanting to stay undercover or something like that.

Very fascinating that R2-D2 has a little set of indicator lights there. Yeah, it's really just for the audience to see something happening, but it's still interesting that it was included in the art design for such a short event. The giant plug is much more sensible for the aesthetic.

Also a fun bit of trivia, while there are only 17 easily visible fighters in the first panel, there's at least 22 countable ones on the page! The coming out of the mists is a pretty neat visual too. Also, while zooming in to count the craft, I figured out exactly what the second panel was looking at. I'd just written the "10 seconds to finish" off as being a comic time thing, but that opening hatch is really far away! The Falcon must have been almost instantly spotted while showing up for 10 seconds to be enough to fill the remaining half of Artoo.

Transcript

GM: <roll> Poe spots PIE fighters incoming.
[SFX]: vreeeeooooowww... vreeeeooooowww... vreeeeooooowww... {fighters close through a tunnel in the glacier}
Poe: How many?
GM: <roll> At least twenty.
Poe: Finn! We need to go!
GM: R2 has got about half the liquified space-time.
R2-D2: I need all of it!
Finn: We don’t have time!
R2-D2: Not yet, we don’t. But give me 10 seconds...
[SFX]: blink... blink... {progress lights on R2’s chassis show about 50% progress}
R2-D2: All right, done!
[SFX]: unplug! {Finn unplugs the hose from R2}
Finn: Thanks, Wedge! Anything we can do for you?
Wedge: Not unless you can alter time, speed up the harvest, or teleport me off this rock. Haha!
R2-D2: With this, I might just be able to do all those things.
[SFX]: vreeeeooooowww... vreeeeooooowww... {fighters zoom through a tunnel towards the Falcon}
Chewbacca: I see we’re giving Pete the promise of unlimited power right off the bat this adventure.
GM: It’s always a crowd pleaser.


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Published: Thursday, 20 February, 2025; 01:11:08 PST
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