Saturday, October 3, 2009

3998 BBY - 3996 BBY: Jedi Protector


A while back I made a post about a short story from chapter 13 of the Jedi Companion source book, which was a Star Wars Role-Playing Game adventure. You can read my post here. Jedi Protector, from Star Wars Galaxy magazine, is the same kind of story, and comes at the tail end of the years 3998 BBY – 3996 BBY.

Before I get into the details of the narrative, I want to first comment on the Star Wars Galaxy magazine. Here’s what Wookieepedia has to say about it: “Star Wars Galaxy Magazine was a quarterly publication published by Topps, concerning everything related to Star Wars, including books, comics, video games, etc. It ran from fall 1994 to fall 1997, at which point it was cancelled and followed by Star Wars Galaxy Collector.”

For some reason I religiously collected this magazine, which puzzles me to some extent. I’m puzzled because The Star Wars Adventure Journal, in my opinion, was a way better publication than this, but for some reason I only have a few copies of it. But I have every issue of Star Wars Galaxy. The reason I liked Star Wars Galaxy was purely for the role-playing game content that could be found in every issue, which of course was what the whole Adventure Journal thing was all about! I’m still shaking my head wondering why I don’t have every issue of the Star Wars Adventure Journal, yet I have every issue of Galaxy.

Every issue of Star Wars Galaxy has a super short role-playing game narrative, with stats on new heroes or villains you could add to your own RPG campaigns.. In issue #1 there was a bounty hunter from Tatooine named Taggor Bren, which my GM used in one of our adventures to capture my gambler character (my character had forgot to pay some money owed to a Hutt). I guess it was this inclusion of Taggor Bren into my friends and I RPG adventures that got me hooked. From then on I ordered every issue.

It’s a shame it was cancelled and turned into a collector’s magazine. I’ve got nothing against Star Wars collector magazines, but I’d love to see the resurgence of a Star Wars Adventure Journal or Galaxy magazine type publication once more.

In Jedi Protector, we are introduced to Shalavaa, a Jedi novitiate sent by his Master to a far off world to police and negotiate nerf herder disputes.

For the first few weeks of his mission things are rather boring. Then, mysteriously, nerfs and their herders begin to disappear. Shalavaa is asked to investigate, and it is here that the solo adventures begins.

In a ‘chose-your-own-adventure’ type set up, you, the player, make decisions for Shalavaa based upon dice rolls. I played the adventure myself, and here is what happened:

Shalavaa made his way to a ravine the villagers considered haunted. After some successful attempts at reading the situation using the Force, he noticed a lost leather boot. Upon further investigation, Shalavaa noticed some rather unusual vines, and was then suddenly attacked by a carnivorous plant.

Successfully using his lightsaber, he dispatched of the plant. His Master then revealed himself from some shadows along the cliff-face wall, and told Shalavaa that his skills were complete, and he was able to face more challenging difficulties in the galaxy.

The opposite side of this adventure would have been if Shalavaa was unsuccessful with his sabre skill (which the player rolled with dice), his Master would have told him he needed more training.

As it is, it was a short adventure, meant to introduce the game to new players.

The time line for this story is mentioned at the beginning of the adventure, which states simply: “Four thousand years before Luke Skywalker…” I’m not quite sure how it ended up at the end of this time line, but I take Joe Bongiomo’s research into Star Wars chronology at face value.

For my next chronological investigation, I’m moving 3 years ahead to the year 3993 BBY, and the story Shadows and Light, from Star Wars Tales volume 6. Until then my friends, may the Force be with you.

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