Darths & Droids

ARCHIVE     FORUM     CAST     FAN ART     RSS     FAQ     ACADEMY

<     Episode 2252: Cockpit and Tubbs     >

Episode 2252: Cockpit and Tubbs

<<FIRST     <PREVIOUS     NEXT>     LATEST>>

Families provide strong bonds between people, both in reality and in imagined campaign worlds. Indeed, as the saying goes, blood is thicker than water.

This means that a quick and easy way to establish that people care about one another, or that their lives intersect, is to simply say that they are related. This immediately brings an assumption that the people know one another and that there is some existing relationship between them - likely positive (though see below). You can establish this sort of background between two people with just two words: "They're brothers." People hearing those words will make many default assumptions, and you can lean into them.

There is also interest to be gained from an antagonistic family relationship. You can also easily establish a negative relationship with just a few words: "They're brothers, but they hate each other." This has a richness and depth of background to it far beyond simply "they hate each other". You can immediately understand that they've known each other forever, how this hatred may have arisen, and how deep it is, which you don't get without the fact that the two are related.

So if you have two NPCs in a game and you want the players to understand the depth of their feelings towards one another, be they friendly or spiteful, consider letting the PCs learn that they are related.

Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)

And we immediately lose a couple Resistance ships. Surprised, I am not. Frankly, what's more surprising is that the Resistance ships don't seem to be shooting back very much. Okay, the clips could just be carefully chosen to give this kind of view. Or that these are the best of the non-blurry frames. But shooting way off into the distance seems more than reasonable an action, especially when ammunition isn't a concern.

I know the majority of the dice rolls in the game aren't written out for better reading like how we don't get the scene descriptions. But man I'm curious if the GM rolled poorly against himself after setting this up or if it was a foregone conclusion. Given how long Pedrin lasted, I'm betting on the second.

... These three were all somehow related in the movies/Expanded Universe too, weren't they?

Transcript

[SFX]: Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!
Tubbs: Maen nhw ym mhobman!
GM: Tubbs is the brother of Pedrin, who died in the Battle of Toprawa, and Porkins, who died attacking the first Peace Moon.
Paige: The Space Welsh brothers?
Tallie: The last surviving brother. Let’s do whatever we can to ensure he makes it home alive.
Paige: This Tubbs better be worth it. He better go home and cure a disease, or invent some sort of safety barrier to stop people falling into pits.
Tubbs: Ni allaf—
[SFX]: Kaboom! {Tubbs’s fighter is hit}
[SFX]: Boom! {Tubbs’s fighter goes down in flames}
[SFX]: Pow! Pow!
Paige: Well, I guess pits will forever be hazardous.


Our comics: Darths & Droids | Irregular Webcomic! | Eavesdropper | Planet of Hats | The Dinosaur Whiteboard | The Prisoner of Monty Hall | mezzacotta
Blogs: dangermouse.net (daily updates) | 100 Proofs that the Earths is a Globe (science!) | Carpe DMM (whatever) | Snot Block & Roll (food reviews)
More comics we host: Lightning Made of Owls | Square Root of Minus Garfield | iToons | Comments on a Postcard | Awkward Fumbles
Published: Tuesday, 03 January, 2023; 01:11:05 PST.
Copyright © 2007-2024, The Comic Irregulars. irregulars@darthsanddroids.net