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Episode 1967: Wire You Doing This?

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Is there any finer moment in GameMastering than when you throw in a trivially minor bit of flavour at the last second based on ad-lib whim or a random die roll, expecting the players to handle it simply by saying "We open the door" or "We give the dog a friendly pat", and instead they go into a huge production number plan of how to deal with it, covering all possible contingencies, and getting paranoid about what might happen if things go wrong, to the point that they either fail to open the door, or actively provoke the dog into attacking them?

This is why it's important to add lots of small flavour and colour details to your settings and adventures, even if you think they're not going to have any functional effect on the game.

Commentary by Keybounce (who has not seen the movie)

Well, ... I will give Han points: it's different. It's unexpected. That's a serious bonus. As he points out, they'll never expect it. It is very easy to prepare for, and stop, any sort of reasonably expected plans.

Know someone has a spare escape ship? Prepare for it to be used, and have it guarded.

Know someone has a contact on a floating city? Get there first, and convince them to help you.

Know someone has a friend in a distant planet, and you can summon them through torture? Torture.

Do something completely unexpected, like arm peaceful traders with weapons? Upset the balance of power and change which mob faction is in charge of a planet.

In this case? Sure, stealing someone else's ship after making sure they cannot come after you in your old one? Plenty of sense. They'll be stuck on the ship with the alien monsters that are going to take your body.

Hmm. This whole sequence really is a tribute to Alien, isn't it?

Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)

An excellent point by Chewie, but to give Yanni some credit here, Rey's hotwiring attempt probably did something to door systems that rendered this one stuck closed. Perhaps some sensors were tricked into incorrectly registering the presence of vacuum on the other side. For all the lack of visible safety devices in the Star Wars universe, we have seen instances of physical barriers being used for airlocks or emergencies. I bet that's not the case in the movie though, and this is more of the set-up for a callback joke to Episode VI without getting into the details of why it needs hacking.

I think I detect some sarcasm from BB-8 in the last panel there. Seeing as I was able to predict Yanni wanting to sabotage the Falcon, I wouldn't be surprised if something has already happened to the Kanjiklub ship by the GM to show that Yanni's getting predictable. Sudden random explosion à la Episode I start perhaps? Or maybe the rathtars are already tearing that ship apart, so Yanni is stuck escaping on the Falcon which may or may not be booby-trapped. Either way, there's no way the ship of the party is going to just be abandoned right?

Also, I just want to say it's nice to see Chewie get to use the laser crossbow again. I was always a little disappointed that he never got to use it more than a couple times in the movies I've seen.

Transcript

GM: Meanwhile, Yanni, Chewie, and BB-8 are being chased by two Guavians.
GM: You approach the hangar bay. <roll>... The door is closed.
Yanni: Cover us! I’ll hotwire the door!
[SFX]: Pow!
Chewbacca: Why do you need to hotwire it? It’s our ship.
Yanni: {working on the door control panel} I’ve got the wires out now. Anyway, here’s the plan. We make them think we’re fleeing in the Falcon.
BB-8: By fleeing in the Falcon?
[SFX]: Pow!
Yanni: Too predictable! We booby trap the Falcon, then go find the Kanjiklub ship and flee on that.
[SFX]: Pow!
[SFX]: 17!
[SFX]: Pow! Damage! {Chewie hits a Guavian}
Chewbacca: But—
Yanni: They’ll never expect us to sabotage our own ship!
BB-8: I certainly didn’t expect it.
Yanni: See!


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Published: Tuesday, 09 March, 2021; 01:11:08 PST.
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