Star Wars Age of Rebellion RPG: Friends like these

As operatives in the Rebel Alliance, you are committed to doing what’s right. Not just what’s right for you, your family, or your fellow Rebels, but what’s right for the entire galaxy, and all the peoples and planets within it—even if you have to sacrifice your life in the act. So when Alliance High Command sends you a message commanding you to help out Alliance allies on a planet in the Outer Rim, you don’t think twice. You answer the call.

Friends Like These, the next adventure supplement for the Star Wars: Age of Rebellion roleplaying game, takes your team of Rebels to Xorrn, a planet under threat of imminent Imperial attack. Once you arrive, you have 48 hours to organize the defenses and recruit military support from nearby systems. But from the moment you first arrive on Xorrn, you’ll discover that in this area of the galaxy, it's impossible to know who your real friends are, and that strategy and morals don’t always go hand in hand. In this battle, even the cleanest military victory might come at a terrible price.

Worlds Away
Friends Like These takes you to an area in the Outer Rim where the rules and regulations of places like Coruscant, Mon Cala, or even Thyferra fall away. This relative lawlessness enabled the Geonosians to build a droid foundry on Xorrn, and later enabled that foundry to manufacture ships for the Rebel Alliance without attracting Imperial attention (until now). On nearby Kowak, university-funded rainforest ecologists coexist with ruthless slavers backed by royalty. Over on Vlemoth Port, several sentient species, all immigrants to the planet at some point, do business together so effectively that smugglers and slavers are rarely seen.

The 96 fully-illustrated pages of this adventure book contain detailed gazetteers for these three planets that not only enable Game Masters to flesh out the details of the setting for their PCs, but incorporate those planets into adventures and campaigns of their own design. In each gazetteer you’ll also find numerous NPCs from a variety of species whom your team may or may not encounter in the course of their efforts to defend Xorrn. Some you might end up saving for a later adventure, some might become reoccurring characters throughout your campaign.

Face Time
At the heart of Friends Like These is a relentless countdown to the moment that Imperial forces arrive on Xorrn. Throughout the game, not only do the players and Game Master have to be mindful of the ticking in-game clock, but the PCs must as well. Getting distracted from your mission—or even failing an astrogation check—may spell disaster for Xorrn. At every step, from strategizing and negotiating to making sure your ships are in shape and guns are loaded, you’ll have to make sure you don’t take too much time.

The plot of Friends Like These also makes it particularly suited to a group of PCs from a range of careers. Commanders will be adept at organizing Xorrn’s defensive plans, while Aces and Soldiers will take center stage once the battle begins. Diplomats and Spies will be indispensible for recruiting allies, and Engineers can help Xorrn prepare the machinery of battle while also ensuring that everything the team needs to do their work keeps working.

Although primarily designed for Age of Rebellion, you can also integrate Friends Like These into a Force and Destiny or Edge of the Empire campaign. The adventure’s Outer Rim setting and moral complexities will appeal to Smugglers and Explorers from Edge of the Empire who sympathize with the Rebel Alliance. The mission to save a planet from Imperial takeover is also a natural fit for Force-sensitive PCs who have chosen the Guardian and Warrior careers. And when the fate of a planet depends on you finding reliable allies, a Consular’s ability to sense someone’s true motives has the potential to save countless lives.

Put Yourself Out There
If you really want to make a difference as part of the Rebel Alliance, you’ll need to put yourself out there. Not just by looking beyond the places and cultures you’re familiar with, but by going beyond what you thought were your limits, physically, mentally, and perhaps even morally. Above all, you’ll need to be willing to put your life at risk—because the lives of thousands of other sentient beings may depend on it. This mission may take everything you’ve got.