A Preview of the STAR WARS (R): Age of Rebellion (TM) Roleplaying Game

“You know of the Rebellion against the Empire?”
    –Luke Skywalker

In the Star Wars®: Age of Rebellion™ Roleplaying Game, you and your friends assume the roles of members of the Rebel Alliance, which is vastly outnumbered and outgunned in its war with the evil Galactic Empire.

Accordingly, you’ll play your part in reconnaissance missions, intel operations, and guerrilla operations. You may support insurgent governments or rally new recruits. You might fly to battle alongside or within capital ships, and – on rare occasions – you might even take part in a key military strike that involves the entire Rebel fleet. No matter what mission you undertake, your ultimate goals will always be to undermine the Galactic Empire and free the galaxy from its tyranny.

To kick off your adventures within the Age of Rebellion, the Core Rulebook contains the full-length, three-act adventure, Perlemian Haul. In it, you and your teammates must infiltrate an Imperial convoy and secure the cargo stored aboard one of its freighters, the Perlemian Haul.

Your task will challenge you and your fellow Rebels to navigate your way through space stations, Imperial heavy freighters, navy troopers, patrol droids, dozens of TIEs, and other hazards. If you fail, you’ll become yet another of the Rebellion’s unsung martyrs, but if you succeed, you’ll be celebrated and given the opportunity to participate in more sensitive missions. More importantly, though, you’ll have done your part to topple the evil Empire.

Contributing Author Gary Astleford on Perlemian Haul

I’ve been a fan of Star Wars since I three years old, the original film was the first movie I ever saw in a bona fide theater, and to say I was thrilled to be offered a chance to write the introductory adventure for the upcoming Age of Rebellion roleplaying game is something of an understatement.

Writing material for a relatively new game system is always interesting, and this was once again the case for Age of Rebellion as I needed the adventure to integrate a range of Careers and Specializations, as well as the Duty mechanic. While I won’t get into the specific details of the assignment, Perlemian Haul incorporates all of these, along with some intrigue, action, and suspense, plus a few surprises!

I consider myself something of an old-school Star Wars fan, so Age of Rebellion took me back to the days when blasting Vader’s minions was as commonplace as driving down to the grocery store for a gallon of milk. Its focus on the war between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance put me in familiar territory, and the game’s military stylings provide a lot of useful structure for the Player Characters. While this structure isn’t used to straightjacket the players, it allows the GM to easily present military-style scenarios wherein the PCs’ successes or failures can have very real consequences in the galactic conflict as a whole.

There’s also the matter of altruism. The characters in Age of Rebellion are fighting the good fight. They’re not putting their lives on the line for money or notoriety; they’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do. This doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for moral quandary – far from it. However, the decisions the PCs make are likely to affect more than just their own limited sphere of influence, and the results should carry beyond them to their superiors and their subordinates, at least.

In the end, I had a wonderful time designing Perlemian Haul, and I hope players find the experience as rich, rewarding, and fun as I worked to make it!

Thanks, Gary!

As the Core Rulebook’s introductory adventure, Perlemian Haul offers plenty of action for every sort of Rebel. It also provides a solid foundation for your future adventures, including any you may experience during the adventure included in the Game Master’s Kit, during Onslaught at Arda I, or throughout your home campaign.

If there’s anything that’s certain about the adventures in Age of Rebellion, it’s that there are always opportunities for heroics, so grab your blaster, don your flight suit, and join the fight against the Empire.

The Star Wars: Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook goes on sale later this week!

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