3959-3956 BBY: Opportunities: Part One, Two, Three

With Darth Revan’s capture and absence as the leader of the Sith Empire, relative hell has broken loose. With Darth Malak now acting as top dog, infighting and power-grabs by the Sith acolytes beneath these two forces are scrambling for position and authority. Such is the way in the Sith Empire, as Malak knows all-to-well.

One ambitious Sith leader knows he may be able to garner interest from Malak, and move himself closer to the top (and maybe even kill Malak himself), by finding a secret research facility thought to be producing advanced and deadly battle droids. This “Sith leader” sends out a non-Sith ship (but manned with Sith forces) for his scouting mission, hoping not to tip off the Jedi and the Republic. However, his ploy fails, and the Republic, along with a Jedi strike team, attack the ship and begin to board it. It is here that conflict ensues: “By happenstance or by the will of the Force, individuals of great potential are found on both sides of the conflict. This battle will decide their destiny and possibly the fortunes of their allies and masters”.

Because this is a role-playing miniatures adventure, who wins this conflict is not important to its outcome. For the purposes of this post, we’ll assume the Republic forces, lead by a powerful Jedi Guardian, defeats the Sith forces and regains control of the ship.

This is the first third of the adventure “Opportunities”, titled ‘crossing paths’.
The second part of the adventure, titled ‘Misinformed’ deals with the winning forces’ landing at the secret facility, and discovering, in fact, there is A deadly battle droid, but not a manufacturing facility making these droids. What is more, this battle droid is accompanied by some space pirates, who recently discovered this droid in a raid, and are looking to unleash its destructive capabilities.

The droid in question here is HK-47, a unique and deadly battle droid who has expertise in killing Jedi targets. He appears later in the KOTOR video game, and from what I’ve read from wookieepedia, has quite the personality.

Before the pirates were defeated, they contacted the Sith Empire in an attempt to call for help, and sell the HK-47 battle droid to the highest bidder. It is here that the third part of the adventure starts, titled ‘Destiny Awaits’. Responding to the call is Darth Malak himself, and it is here that he and the powerful Jedi Guardian square off in a final epic battle.

From an RPG perspective, the outcome of this battle is still in the balance. It’s possible that the Guardian defeats Malak, but before the Dark Lord can be killed he slinks away to fight another day. Also, and what is more likely, is that Malak soundly defeats the Jedi Guardian, killing him in what I imagine to be an epic duel.

The ending of this adventure brings us to the doorstep of the KOTOR video game, and what is my greatest obstacle in the Star Wars Chronology Project. It’s my greatest obstacle because they way in which I am able to interact with this source is highly limiting. If the source I’m examining is in text form, I can bring the comic or book to work and read it on my break. If it’s an internet source I can also bring my laptop to work and, again, engage with the text on my break (a lot of the SWCP is done on my break at work, afterschool once my daily lesson prep is done, and on weekends when my son is napping). But because this source is a video game, the conditions under which I can engage with it are limited to my bedroom sometime after 9pm.

Being a husband, a father, and teacher, my time at home is usually not reserved for me. Not only do I participate in the chores of the home, I also want to be a present husband for my wife, and also a present father for my son. My wife and I usually clean up a little when we get home. Cook and eat dinner as a family. We then spend some time with our son playing or watching Thomas the Tank Engine, and after he goes to bed, we usually just sit and stare at the TV with a cup of tea. If we’re not watching TV we’re marking.

Lately I’ve been going to our bedroom to play some KOTOR, but after 9pm (when our son is asleep and we’ve basically relaxed for about an hour) the last thing I want to do is play a video game. I actually just want to go to bed, which is usually what happens.

So…the KOTOR video game will defiantly be a challenge for me. The challenge, obviously, is finding the time. With that being said I’m going to buy some time and in the meantime make other posts. The third part of the Lost Tribe of the Sith series was released yesterday, the final issue of the KOTOR comic series comes out next week, and I still want to cover the Xim material. For my next post I’m going to back-fill the LTOTS series, and if I finish the post before the 17th, I’ll move on to Xim, and once I’m done with the Xim material, I’ll back-fill my KOTOR issue 49 and 50 post. Until then my friends, may the Force be with you.