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Episode 1742: The Best of Us

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Alternate, rejected title: The Need for Heed.

Being a lone voice of protest is always a hard row to hoe. Especially when you're correct. Look at Police Chief Brody in Jaws. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park. Jor-El in pretty much every Superman origin story.

What we're looking at here is either The Cassandra, or the Ignored Expert, depending on whether knowledge of the truth comes from prophecy or science, respectively.

In a game you can play this trope in two different ways, depending on which side of the coin the PCs are. If the heroes uncover evidence of some world-threatening danger, they may have a hard time convincing anyone else about it. For example, they could discover the plans of a demon lord to unleash an army of demons on the material plane, or the nefarious scheme of a respected industrial leader to use nanobots to infiltrate and take over all the world's governments. But when they try to warn anyone, nobody will believe their outlandish story, and accuses them of making it up. So it's up to the heroes to save the world single-handedly! A classic adventure scenario.

On the other hand, you could have heroes who have settled into a wealthy post-adventure lifestyle, looking after castles and extensive lands full of serfs, on the lookout for orc incursions and stuff like that, when a mysterious stranger arrives at court and warns them of the plans of a demon lord to unleash an army of demons on the material plane... Make the stranger seem a little unhinged and desperate, and make sure that any attempt to act on his warning seems like way too much effort, and the serfs are unhappy and demanding that something be done about the goblins on the borders, and there's a potential war brewing with the next kingdom over... and see how the PCs react.

[Reminder: Our guest commentators have not seen Rogue One. Part of the fun is seeing how their untainted impressions re-interpret the movie through the lens of our comic.]

Jar Jar. The wondrous Rebel general. The intelligent person, who thinks about leaping. Three-dimensional thinking. The one who has demonstrated the ability to make the Senate do something. The ideal person to go and sway to your cause.

Just... Make sure he doesn't wind up on Naboo when the weapon fires. Oh, that's right.

— Keybounce

Transcript

C-3PO: What are we going to do with the plans?
Leia: We need to expose them in the Senate, to show how corrupt the Empire is.
Captain Antilles: So we need to find a Senator.
Leia: I'm the Senator for Alderaan.
C-3PO: Nobody will listen to a lone voice. You need backup. Someone with impeccable credibility.
R2-D2: Somebody respected and beloved across the Galaxy.
Leia: Right, yes. Someone who everybody will heed.
{beat, all thinking}
Captain Antilles: It's settled then. Setting course for Naboo.
{inset picture of Jar Jar}


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Published: Tuesday, 11 December, 2018; 02:11:02 PST.
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