Star Wars: Blogs | Fragments from the Mind's Eye | Rookies: No Turning Back -- Week Eleven and Twelve Annotations

Fragments from the Mind's Eye

date posted: Sep 15, 2006 8:49 PM

Rookies: No Turning Back -- Week Eleven and Twelve Annotations

You wander away from the strip for a couple of weeks, and next thing you know you're in the middle of a madcap action sequence. Well, better catch up, then.

Monday - No Strip (Labor Day)

Tuesday, Strip 49 -- Smiley's grabber is broken in this rough housing. And looks like they'll make a Rebel out of Raal just yet.

Wednesday, Strip 50 -- Raal's dilemma touches on a theme I talked about in the first Rookies strip. That is, this quartet aren't larger-than-life heroes. They're not the best smuggler in the galaxy, a princess Senator and the secret child of the galaxy's Chosen One. These are heroes-in-training, and as such, they're more likely to fail and face real jeopardy. It's not meant to be grim or anything, but I hope to make these characters very relatable and down-to-earth.

Thursday, Strip 51 -- And now we enter the big action setpiece from the "Rebel Breakout" adventure, modified a bit to better suit the webstrip format. Staging this is a bit complicated, so the labels next to each doorway are there to help visually anchor the scene. The Rookies doorway is 7A. Their hoped-for destination is 6B, which is one across and down.

Friday, Strip 52 -- ... and the big freakin' plasma fire is clearly a problem.

Monday, Strip 53 -- Here's an example of modifying the story to make it a bit more cinematic, and to tie it into the saga. When "Rebel Breakout" was published in 1987, there was of course no mention of booster rockets in R2-D0, because Episode II was years away. But with the benefit of prequel hindsight, why not give Deo a set of rockets. Besides, Smiley thinks its cool.

Tuesday, Strip 54 -- Enter the complication: Barezz and his troops. Now, Barezz is on level 8B, which is one above and across from the Rookies, and two above their destination.

Wednesday, Strip 55 -- For the curious, I actually modeled this chasm set in crude 3-D geometry to keep the perspective and angles realistic. Panel #2 is shot with a very skewed lens. Deo turns from flying droid to deadweight, and drops straight down, taking Smiley with him.

Thursday, Strip 56 -- Time for Sammie to show off those biceps. I'm particularly fond of that Smiley illustration in panel #2.

Friday, Strip 57 -- Kestrel almost lands a shot in panel #2. You know if she did, that trooper would just have to yell the "Wilhelm" as he fell, right?

Oh, and in answer to Korpil's comment:

So, Raal's got what? 3D in blaster? And I assume he uses a CP in strip 49! Just in time!

Actually, his skill wasn't bad for a starting character; his player just kept rolling really badly. That darn wild die.

http://blogs.starwars.com/pablog/96

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	Master Devwi Star Wars News & Opinions
date Posted: Sep 15, 2006 9:03 PM Awesome job on the webstrip! For the curious, I actually modeled this chasm set in crude 3-D geometry to keep the perspective and angles realistic. What program did you use?

	Pabawan Fragments from the Mind's Eye
date Posted: Sep 15, 2006 9:57 PM What program did you use? Poser 6. It's a fun and relatively inexpensive 3D program. ph

	TheSithEmpire
date Posted: Sep 16, 2006 11:32 PM But with the benefit of prequel hindsight, why not give Deo a set of rockets. Besides, Smiley thinks its cool. I agree with Smiley. I think it's cool too! Not sure if it's even remotely possible, but I'd love to have these in trade paperback (and color) one day!

	Hedec Ga War Journal of Hedec Ga
date Posted: Sep 17, 2006 10:12 AM This strip gets better and better - - including the art! How many strips total do you expect this to be? Again, great work

	Pabawan Fragments from the Mind's Eye
date Posted: Sep 19, 2006 11:39 AM How many strips total do you expect this to be? Just shy of 80. Expect to end mid-October. ph

Korpil
A Verpine's blog

date Posted: Sep 20, 2006 10:12 AM

Actually, his skill wasn't bad for a starting character; his player just kept rolling really badly. That darn wild die.

Oh... that reminds me when our first Jedi character rolled nothing but 1s in the wild die while trying to use the lightsaber for the first time... I stated he had wounded himself... so... next roll for damage and nothing but 6s!!!!! He cut himself in half!!! We still remember that an laugh!

jSarek
jSarek's Infonet

date Posted: Oct 01, 2006 5:40 PM

I'm particularly fond of that Smiley illustration in panel #2.

Me too. The placement of his ears alone says volumes.

That darn wild die.

Gotta love the wild die. I once ran an adventure where the PCs were in a hotel with ancient comm units called "telephones." The next part of the story was to start in the form of an early morning phone call.

When the call comes, one player decides it's too early for his sleepy PC ... so the PC shoots the phone. Great way to derail the adventure, I think. He rolls his 5D damage, and gets a good roll. I start rolling the 1D body strength of the phone ... and get five "6s" in a row. Phone isn't even scratched, another character answers it, and adventure continues as planned.

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