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Episode 1973: If It Ain’t Fixed, Don’t Broke It

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Selling excess equipment is a time-honoured way to raise money for any adventuring group. But not all games need to be concerned with the microeconomics of collecting money to buy better equipment. Or even just to get rich.

You can have a game where the protagonists are either (a) just assumed to be rich enough to buy whatever they want, or (b) work for an agency that gives them whatever equipment they need. Think (a) Batman or (b) James Bond. You can definitely still get into adventures and face villains and problems without having to worry about trying to make money.

So if you run games where accumulating money is always a goal, try shaking it up with a different style.

Commentary by Keybounce (who has not seen the movie)

Storywise, we have the Experimental McGuffin hyperdrive modulator showing up and being important.

I actually had to go back and review the storyline. This modulator comes from the ships that crashed in the desert long ago. This was back in 1926. All we know is some sort of weird anomalies, that might be related to some new spice-related drive. Now, we find that they want to use this device to escape all the parties trying to go after... "Rey's father", whatever name he's using today.

In the current strip, we have the whole issue of... Well, let's see. One idea was to sabotage the Falcon and leave in another ship, because it was unexpected. Another idea is to leave in the Falcon, and use the experimental drive to get out. Combine the two, and of course you want to escape in a sabotaged ship and repair the sabotage before selling it later... say what?

There is really no good way for this to resolve, so naturally, there will be some silly or unexpected way. Or perhaps the various groups will resolve each other, and take care of the problem entirely.

And we are back to the big unanswered question. What was that big outer ship that captured the Falcon doing being run by two people, and so full of security holes that it was boarded by three groups, all of which managed to find him? The clearest answer is that Jim/Han/V/W/X/Y's ship has been loaded with some tracking device, and clearly, someone is making a profit by selling tracking data at no personal risk. Yea, that would make a wonderful plot thread, wouldn't it?

Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)

Hah, how could I forget about Yanni's greed? This provides Yanni an excellent reason to not sabotage the Falcon. The mystery modulator? Sure that could be important. Antique ship that still works? I bet someone would pay pretty good money for that (never mind that the chance of finding said person is tiny). The party just needs to keep Yanni from properly sabotaging the ship while they're in it so they all can escape the rathtars and other gangs.

Also, having one of the other characters talk about the experimental hyperdrive modulator somehow makes it more real. Previously, all we had was Rey's word that it wasn't some random hyperdrive modulator as the other Resistance member here, BB-8, hadn't heard of it before. And since Pete was keeping privileged character knowledge from other players, it could have been something he'd made up to hide the real backstory. Maybe the modulator is the new Orb of Phanastacoria equivalent and we'll end up with the First Order and the Resistance fighting over it?

Transcript

Rey: We have to take the Falcon! It has the experimental hyperdrive modulator!
Chewbacca: You found it?
Rey: Yes!
Chewbacca: Tally ho, then!
Yanni: But if we sabotage the Falcon, that could cause problems.
Rey: There’s a simple solution for that.
Yanni: Right. We sell it to someone before it breaks down. Good thinking!
Finn: But... hear me out... you could get more money for it if it isn’t sabotaged.
Yanni: Hmm. I like it! We repair the sabotage before we sell it!


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Published: Tuesday, 23 March, 2021; 02:11:12 PDT.
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