Unresolved plot hooks

I have not forgotten about revealing the whereabouts of Marina or the enslaved Ewoks; I have sketched out some ideas about where they are, but I want to read the KotOR book (which I still don't have yet) before I reveal anything concrete, so I can incorporate some stuff from that book. When I decide for sure what I want to do with them, I will post it here, as well as discuss it at the start of the next game.

The Clone Wars

So, is anybody planning to see The Clone Wars?  I'll head to the theater once I get the chance, even though it's getting savaged in the reviews.

The KotOR/Force Unleashed plan

I'm expecting the KotOR Campaign Guide any day now (thank you, Jake, for hooking me up with the pre-order), and the Force Unleashed Campaign Guide is scheduled to come out September 16.

In order to accommodate the wealth of new species, talents, feats, etc. that will be at our disposal, I will allow some retraining so players can immediately take advantage of some of the new options.  Before the next game (currently scheduled for September 7), each player may, if they so choose, do any or all of the following:

• Switch one talent with a talent from the KotOR Campaign Guide, as long as it's a talent from the same class (i.e. one scoundrel talent for another scoundrel talent, etc.).
  
• Switch one feat with a feat from the KotOR Campaign Guide, as long as the player meets all the prerequisites and changing the feat won't invalidate any other prerequisites.
  
• Switch one class level for a level in any other class.  This involves changing the talent or bonus feat for that class accordingly, as well as the base attack bonus and hit points gained.
• There will only be species switching with new characters, as that's a whole lot harder to explain in-game.  ("So my Gamorrean is a Togruta now.")

I will also allow the same style of retraining once the Force Unleashed Campaign Guide is out, as that will be the same size and have a similar amount of new abilities (although I will be careful about era appropriateness there, within reason).

Trust me, as soon as I get the KotOR Campaign Guide, I will let everyone know, and I'll make some recommendations for what I think might be good fits for some players.

September is Star Wars month

After talking to my scheduler today, I still have no weekends off in August, but I will have no less than 3 Sundays off in September, beginning with the first one of the month.  So I plan to run Star Wars at least twice that month, or more accurately, I plan to run Star Wars as many times as you guys are willing to play.

Schedule update

When I got into work Wednesday, I saw that I'd gotten my schedule through the rest of August.  Long story short, for some strange reason I wasn't given a weekend off the whole month (though I got the 20th and 27th off, which opens me up for D&D).  I suspect what happened is that when I told the girl who does my scheduling I want to try to get alternating Wednesdays off for D&D, she decided I didn't want weekends off anymore?  I'm going to talk to her on Friday, but until it's sorted out, it looks like the next game won't be until September.

Galactic Gazetteer: Nar Shaddaa and the Duros Sector

Nar Shaddaa is one of the best known ecumenopolis planets in the galaxy; despite being a mere inhabitable moon with no discernible resources, its proximity to the Hutt throne world has elevated its presence to make it well-known from Coruscant to the Unknown Regions.  The planet has been covered with sprawl since the early days of the Republic, when the Hutts moved onto the planet Varl, renamed it Nal Hutta, and evicted the native Evocii to the moon as slave labor.  The Evocii, at the Hutts' behest, built docking bays and spaceports all over the moon, some extending into orbit, and over time the entire moon was completely urbanized. Massive cities grew, and the planet was soon named by the Hutts "Nar Shaddaa," or "The Vertical City."  Because of the moon's proximity to the Hutt underworld, it acquired the more common moniker "The Smuggler's Moon."  It has been said that just about anything can be illegally purchased on the moon.  Many infamous criminals, pirates and smugglers throughout history made their start on Nar Shaddaa, and it's widely said that even the wisest Jedi fear to tread into the deepest bowels of the moon.

The moon has a population stretching somewhere between 72 to 95 billion; no organization is willing to conduct a census, and no one is brave enough to go into the lower levels where the feral degenerates and worst dregs of society dwell.  It is said that the Evocii still live in the lowest levels, horribly mutated by the industrialization of the moon, but no one wants to find out for sure.  As the Great Sith War and Mandalorian Wars ended, Nar Shaddaa was flooded with refugees who had lost everything and had nowhere else to turn.

One well-known sector of Nar Shaddaa is the Duros Sector.  Roughly the size of a city, the area began to take its moniker after a small but brutal civil war on Duro about 10,000 years before the current time displaced many Duros from their homes.  Having lost everything, many came to Nar Shaddaa, and most congregated together in large groups.  Over the years, they made their corner of Nar Shaddaa their home, importing Durese architecture to the buildings there and expanding Durese businesses to the Vertical City.  The Neimoidians, offshoots of the Duros species, poured their own resources into the Duros Sector, hoping to establish a positive relationship with the Nar Shaddaa Duros.  As such, the Duros Sector still stands to this very day, and it is widely regarded as one of the most cosmopolitan and well-kept sectors on Nar Shaddaa.  In recent years, the Duros Sector has seen a large influx of refugees again, as Duro was hit hard during the Mandalorian Wars.

Popular landmarks in the Duros Sector include:

• The Glitterstim casino, a classy establishment that offers sabacc, pazaak, trin sticks, legal sports betting, and all manner of gambling games from throughout the galaxy.  The casino is well-guarded by a contingent of Trandoshans and droids who ensure that none of the violence of the planet creeps inside.  The popular singer Merezel Keeg, one of the Duros Sector's favorite daughters, makes it a point to perform at the Glitterstim whenever she is on tour.
  
• The Zhug family estate.  The Zhugs were one of the original families displaced in the creation of the Duros Sector, and they have maintained holdings here ever since.  Successful in the blaster design business, they are one of the richest families in the Duros Sector, and all residents know not to cross a Zhug.  As just about every Duros family on Nar Shaddaa has married into or out of the Zhug family at some point in the 10,000 years since the establishment of the Duros Sector, the Zhugs consider nearly all Duros on Nar Shaddaa family, blood or not.  They have also gained a reputation for ruthlessness in their business dealings on Duro; many Duros say that they have too much Nar Shaddaa in them.
  
• The Slag Pit bar.  When Torve Metal Concern, a front for the Hutt Faljozic kajidic, was shut down, their foundries in Hutt Space were left abandoned.  An enterprising Neimoidian named Kund Ekorr took over one of them and decided to convert it into a gigantic bar.  While the Glitterstim strongly discouraged violence, Ekorr realized there could be profit to be made by allowing weapons inside.  The arms-allowed rule has led to an unusual peace inside the bar; knowing that everybody else in the building is well-armed is a strong deterrent against violence.  The Slag Pit is known as the most popular bar in the Duros Sector for bounty hunters and pirates, and the large, cavernous factory structure allows for an enormous number of occupants.  The back offices have been converted into private rooms for those seeking to avoid attention, and the slag pit namesake, a large melting pit in the middle of the bar, has been emptied and is used for raucous droid fights.

The Slag Pit

The definitive era timeline

Since we're playing in a largely unexplored era, and since the timeline of events is not easy to remember, I've written up a definitive timeline for the KotOR era.

38 to 37 years before the campaign

• The Great Sith War begins.  In response to a dark side cult terrorizing the Empress Teta system, a young Jedi named Ulic Qel-Droma decides to infiltrate and destroy them from within, but fails and falls to the dark side.  At the same time, another young Jedi named Exar Kun betrays his Master, falls to the dark side, and begins creating an army of alchemical mutants on Yavin IV.  When Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma meet for the first time, the spirits of the ancient Sith appear to them, branding Kun the first Dark Lord of the Sith and Qel-Droma his first apprentice.  With an army of Sith mutants, Mandalorians, and converted Jedi, Kun and Qel-Droma carve a path of destruction all the way to Coruscant and the Senate Chamber itself.  Ulic is finally brought back to the light when he accidentally kills his brother Cay, and he leads the Jedi to Yavin IV, where the combined Jedi destroy Exar Kun and his army.  By the time the war is over, many Jedi have been killed or abandoned the Order, the Republic is in tatters, and the Mandalorians have retreated back to the Unknown Regions.  These events are detailed in the Tales of the Jedi comic series.
  

37 to 17 years before

• The Jedi engage in the Great Hunt, searching for and destroying the tarentateks, fierce predators that hunt Force users.  These events are detailed in the Star Wars Tales #23 story Shadows and Light.
  
• Ulic Qel-Droma, in self-imposed exile on Rhen Var after turning away from the Sith, is killed by a pilot looking to make a name for himself.
  
• Because of the disastrous events caused by two rogue Knights, the Jedi Order receives more scrutiny from the Republic, and the Council works increasingly with the Supreme Chancellor and the Senate.  Under governmental pressure, the Jedi constructs a Temple on Coruscant, which will act as a capital for the Order.
  

17 to 5 years before

• The Mandalorians, having rebuilt their numbers since the Great Sith War, begin a new crusade by raiding planets in the Outer Rim and Unknown Regions.  Because these planets are not members of the Republic, the Senate refuses to intervene.
  
• A few Jedi decide to take the fight to the Mandalorians, over the objections of the Jedi Council, who don't want to get involved in another war.  Led by the Revanchist and Alek "Squint" Squinquargesimus, these Jedi work to retake territory stolen by the Mandalorians.
  

5 years before

• The Mandalorian Wars begin, with the Mandalorians launching simultaneous attacks in three separate Republic sectors.  The Republic is hard-pressed to defend its worlds against the vicious assaults, and the Mandalorians commit various atrocities to goad the Republic into fighting them on their terms.  The Jedi Council still refuses to join the war, believing there are greater forces at work behind it.
  
• Zayne Carrick is blamed for the Padawan Massacre of Taris.  These events are detailed in the Knights of the Old Republic comic series.
  

5 to 1 years before

• The Mandalorian Wars continue in earnest.  Under the leadership of the Revanchist and Alek, the Republic is able to turn around the war against the Mandalorians.
  
• More Jedi run to the Revanchist's banner, creating a schism in the Jedi Order.  Many see the Jedi Council as cold and distant, as they continue to be unwilling to get involved in the war and save millions of lives.
  

1 year before

• Using the taboo world of Malachor V, the Revanchist lures the remnants of the Mandalorians into a trap.  While the Mass Shadow Generator destroys the structural integrity of the planet, dooming the ships battling above, the Revanchist personally kills Mandalore, the leader of the Mandalorians.
  
• The Revanchist takes the remaining Republic fleet into the Unknown Regions immediately after, saying that he is pursuing Mandalorian survivors.  The fleet is not heard from for a year, leading many to believe they are dead.
  
• The Republic sentences the defeated Mandalorians by destroying their weapons, armor, and ships in front of them, disbanding their clans and letting them settle the Outer Rim.  Many become soldiers, mercenaries, bounty hunters, or simple criminals.

One month before

• The Republic shipyards at Foerost suddenly fall under attack; many Republic ships are either destroyed or stolen.  The attacking forces hijack the communications relays, and the Revanchist declares himself Darth Revan, lord of a new Sith Empire, and Alek is Darth Malak, his apprentice.  Their army is composed of the Republic soldiers who followed Revan to the Unknown Regions, supplemented by ships of unknown design, including Sith destroyers and Sith fighters.  The Jedi Civil War has begun.
  

One week before

• Forcing him to prove his new loyalty to the Sith, Darth Malak orders Admiral Saul Karath to bomb his homeworld of Telos.  Telos is the first large population center destroyed by the Sith, dealing a terrible psychological blow to the Republic.  Many worlds flock to the Sith banner out of fear or opportunity.
  

Now

• The campaign begins.  Jedi Master Vima Sunrider arranges for a group of spacers to travel to Hutt Space to deliver a message to Republic-general-turned-crime-lord Galduran Calrissian, prompting them to win the Sleheyron swoop race and rescue him from Riga the Hutt's palace on Nal Hutta.  The spacers learn that the Sith are planning to attack Ithor.
  

A week later

• The spacers help defend Ithor against the Sith, helping the Republic score its first victory in the Jedi Civil War, and free Jedi Master On-Warr Bistellion from captivity.
  

2 years later

• The Jedi set a trap for Darth Revan, capturing him.  Darth Malak becomes leader of the Sith Empire.
  

3 years later

• Darth Revan, his memory reprogrammed by the Jedi Council, leads the Republic to the Sith Empire's secret weapon, the Star Forge.  These events are detailed in the Knights of the Old Republic video game.
  

8 years later

• A Jedi general, who had gone into exile after the Mandalorian Wars, returns to the galaxy and finds herself the last known Jedi, and the target of a new Sith Triumvirate.  These events are detailed in the Knights of the Old Republic 2 video game.