You’ve gotten your first taste of roleplaying. But that was just a solitaire adventure. Roleplaying games normally involve several people, including this “gamemaster” person. The rules that follow are for the Star Wars The Roleplaying Game Revised, Expanded, and Updated (REUP) version of the game. A full copy of the Source Book is available from The Rancor Pit and includes many updated game mechanics for Game Masters. With that said how does that work?
Well, each player has a character… but you already know that, right? You might want to think of each adventure as a Star Wars movie, with your characters as the stars.
Then there’s the gamemaster. He’s got several jobs: referee, storyteller, and mood-setter — all rolled into one. While you and your friends might play one character each, the gamemaster will play everyone else. He’ll be all the bad guys, all the bystanders, all the bartenders, informants, pals, and anyone else you’ll run into, talk to… or shoot at.
The first thing the gamemaster does is come up with the story your characters are going to star in. He’ll set the scene, tell you what your characters see, and so forth.
Once you have an idea of what’s going on, you get to decide what your characters are going to do. For example, if you’re in a crowded cantina, you can try to leave, try to get some inside info from somebody in the room, open fire… whatever seems like a good idea at the time. (Keep in mind what kind of character you’re playing. A human Jedi’s going to react differently to something than, say, a Wookiee smuggler.)
Once you know what you want your character to try, the gamemaster takes over, deciding how hard it is and what’s going to happen if you succeed or fail.
Maybe I should stop telling you about this, and just show you. Keep reading and you’ll see what I mean.
