SW5e - Wretched Hives - 20201013

INTRODUCTION
HE STAR WARS 5TH EDITION ROLEPLAYING GAME IS ABOUT
vast worlds populated populated by myriad sites
and species. It shares elements with childhood games
of make-believe. Like those games, SW5e is driven by
imagination. It's about picturing the expansive
marketplace and seeing the di erent people's living
their lives, and seeing how they might interact with the
player's characters.
This book is designed to add another signi cant layer
to your SW5e experience. The rules are designed to
work alongside the traditional SW5e ruleset, and so an
experienced player should have no trouble jumping
right into the book. For the less experienced-or more
curious-player, this Introduction discusses the basics.
Game Master (GM): As you enter the teeming
marketplace in a disreputable sector of Nar
Shaddaa, you see merchants of all types
peddling wares, trying to entice the owing
tra c. As you move further into the crowd,
one of the vendors catches your attention as
they hail you.
Drew (playing Dash): I'm going to check out what
they have for sale.
Rickey (playing Vinto): I'm going to keep an eye
on the crowd to make sure our things aren't
stolen.
Erik (playing Kodo): ...
Unlike a game of make-believe, SW5e gives structure to
the stories, a way of determining the consequences of
the adventurers' actions. Players roll dice to determine
whether or not they can haggle for a better price, or to
try to entice a merchant to accept work instead of
credits for their goods. Anything is possible, but the
dice make some outcomes more probable than others.
Game Master (GM): OK, one at a time. Rickey,
you're checking the vendor's goods?
Rickey: Yeah. Do I see anything cool?
GM: Make an Intelligence check.
Rickey: Does my Investigation skill apply?
GM: Sure!
Rickey (rolling a d20): Eight. I hate this die!
GM: You see many trinkets and baubles but
nothing catches your eye. And Drew, Dash is
watching the crowd?
Drew: Yup!
GM: Okay. Eric, what's Kodo doing?
Eric: ...
In the Star Wars DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS game, each
player creates an adventurer (also called a character)
and teams up with other adventurers (played by
friends). Working together, the group might join a
faction, earning renown to increase their standing.
They might become benevolent Jedi, malevolent Sith,
ruthless bounty hunters, or scurrying scoundrels. If no
faction catches their attention, they might instead
create their own.
One player, however, takes on the role of the Game
Master (GM), the game's lead storyteller and referee.
The GM creates adventures for the characters, who
navigate its hazards and decide which paths to explore.
The GM might describe a populous city, and the
players decide what they want their adventurers to do.
Will they spend time buying and selling wares? Or will
they look for work and entertainment in the city to
make—or spend—their coin?
Then the GM determines the results of the
adventurers' actions and narrates what they
experience. Because the GM can improvise to react to
anything the players attempt, SW5e is in nitely exible,
and each adventure can be exciting and unexpected.
The game has no real end; when one story or quest
wraps up, another one can begin, creating an ongoing
story called a campaign. Many people who play the
game keep their campaigns going for months or years,
meeting with their friends every week or so to pick up
the story where they left o . The adventurers grow in
might as the campaign continues. Each force defeated,
each adventure completed, and each relic recovered
not only adds to the continuing story, but also earns
the adventurers new capabilities. This increase in
power is re ected by an adventurer's rank in a faction,
and the tier of the faction itself.
There's no winning and losing in the Star Wars
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS game—at least, not the way
those terms are usually understood. Together, the GM
and the players create an exciting story of bold
adventurers who confront deadly perils. Sometimes an
adventurer might come to a grisly end, dispatched by a
Sith lord. The party itself might meet its demise if it
antagonizes a powerful and malicious faction. Even so,
the other adventurers can beseech a powerful Jedi to
revive their fallen comrade, or the players might
choose (or be forced) to create new characters to carry
on. The group might fail to complete an adventure
successfully, but if everyone had a good time and
created a memorable story, they all win.
EXPLORE CITIES
One of the premier components of Star Wars 5th
Edition, versus a traditional DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS
campaign, is the massive—almost overwhelming—
number of planets. Each planet, and each city, hosts its
own species, communities, factions, and traditions.
Each city hosts its own activities and factions. Players
can choose to engage in these activities and join these
factions if they so desire. Alternatively, players can
instead form their own faction, recruiting other
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