Living Force (roleplaying campaign)

For other uses, see Living Force.

"Living Force" was a Wizards of the Coast RPGA organized play campaign, following the model of similar campaigns such as Living Greyhawk. The campaign was set in the Cularin system, created especially for the campaign and detailed in the Living Force Campaign Guide. The campaign was initially set one year after The Phantom Menace,[3] but to keep current with the movies, the Cularin system time jumped almost ten years when Attack of the Clones came out.

The Living Force campaign lasted for six years, coming to a conclusion after Revenge of the Sith was released. The adventures of the campaign were distributed by the RPGA through its membership for conventions and game days. They were supplemented by articles providing stories, information about the Cularin system, and rules updates for the campaign on the Wizards of the Coast website.

The main story arc of the campaign was titled Among the Stars. A side story arc called Law and Order was being created by campaign staff in Great Britain, but was canceled after only four adventures were released.

Contents

The Living Force campaign was composed of a number of story arcs, each lasting one year although with some story elements that continued throughout the campaign. Each year contained four adventure trilogies, of which three contributed to the central story line, with one additional trilogy on more peripheral events. These were trilogies were supplemented with between one and three stand-alone adventures. These adventures were all released first at conventions, but then became available for play at home at a later date.[4]

Most Living Force adventures were designed to be played in the four-hour time slots used at gaming conventions. A Mon Alone was an extra long adventure to be run in two time slots. The adventures were meant for 4-6 players (though for a short time, the RPGA allowed 3-7), and GMs were expected to run the adventures as written and without using house rules, so that all players had a similar play experience. Living Force adventures were usually retired about one and a half to two years after they premiered. Games played within 30 days of the premiere submitted an events summary to the campaign staff, with the results of the majority of the tables determining the results for the campaign (i.e. if a villain escaped for over half the tables submitting events summaries, that villain did escape and could recur later).

Another type of adventure was called an interactive, which had all the available players playing together in a mostly live action roleplaying (LARP) situation. The players mostly interacted with each other and NPCs in a social setting. There were often activities that could be engaged in, such as podracing, gambling, marksmanship contests, or starship combat sims. Players could submit orders to metaorganizations, such as Joh's New and Used Droid Emporium and the Ma'Haffee Shipyard. Some interactives featured periods where the players would break up into groups of 4-6 and sit down for a short segment of tabletop roleplaying. Many interactives only ran once, with the results of that event being the results for the campaign, though a few were made available for later conventions.

Key:
Adventure trilogies Associated interactives Stand-alone adventures
Issue Adventure Trilogy Date Adventure Tie-In Article(s)
Among the Stars, Year One, 2001
101 Eye of the Sun January A Cularin Presence
102 January The Resistance Within
103 January Revelation and Refutation Two Heads Aren't Better Than One
104 January An Uneasy Peace The Cartel's Gift
105 February The Price of Business
106 Between the Worlds March TopWorld
107 April MidWorld
108 May UnderWorld
109 Clouds of Genarius June Head in the Clouds Tales of Nub Saar
110 July Clouded Paths
111 August Into the Storm Clouds
112 August Blown Away The Sivulliq is Out There -- Somewhere
113 Broken Orbits September Depths of Dorumaa New Crimelord: Rufus Trammel
114 October Something Uffel No Droids for You!
115 November Tilnes Rising Yri Worms Wreak Havoc for Miners
116 December December Oblivion's Kiss Cularin's Lady Senator, Lavina Wren
Law and Order, 2002
101 Trade War September Consignment
102 October Mix 'n Match
103 November Find the Lady
104 December Operation Blue Star
Among the Stars, Year Two, 2002
201 Blinking Eyes January Quarters
202 January Halves
203 January Holes
204 January Peaces
205 February An Official Engagement Senator Wren's Social Calendar
206 Almas, Sweet Almas March The Kaluthin Are Always Greener Into the Academy
207 April Desert Cries Now I Am the Master
208 May A Dark Fortress The Sith Fortress
209 May Coruscani Dawn
210 Shadows in Green
211 Below the Belt June Philanthropy A Friendly Face
212 July Philosophy Dark on Dark
213 August Philology The Cell Revisited
214 Here and Thaere
215 Looking In September Outward Bound Renna's Transport Service
216 October The Air Up Thaere The Creaking Gate
217 November Memories Trade and Trade Alike
218 December No Place Like Home Celebrate SoroSuub
Among the Stars, Year Three, 2003
301 Forces of Cularin January Force Concession Winter Fantasy Preview
A Mother's Memoirs
302 January Force Contention
303 January Force Convention
January Force Convergence
304 February Twi'light Storm Friendship in the Order
305 Metatheran Caution March Caaried Away Tilnes Falling
306 April Open Aarms Something to Mull Over
307 May Belly of the Beaast Stories of Caarimon
308 May Paarty On!
309 July From the Trees
310 Who Goes Thaere?
311 Belted In trilogy June Incursion Burnout
312 July Excursion Life's Memories
313 August Recursion The Darkstaff
314 Night Eyes September Night's Promise Jurisdiction
315 October Night's Friend Cularin at Night
316 November Night's Homecoming Thaere Is Not Your Friend
317 December Dorumaa's Children Trammel's Move
318 At Your Service
Among the Stars, Year Four, 2004
401 Jedi Code January Padawannabes
402 January The Way of the Force
403 January The Dark Side Beckons
404 January For Fun and Profit
405 February Contract AA23
406 Jigsaw March Portrait of the Artist as a Young Rodian
407 April In the Name of the Maker
408 May Cloak and Vibroblade Swoop and Dive
409 N/A Murder on the Queen of Cularin (Never released)
410 Inside-out June Lockdown on Soboll Political Platforms
411 July Uffel's Prisoners Droid Rights
412 August Storm's Depths
413 The Replacements
414 August A Mon Alone Kilassin For Hire
415 September Hunting the Wyrd Making of a Witch
416 Decisions October Decision: Almas Academic Review
417 November Decision: Coruscant Zero Zero Zero
418 December Decision: Cularin
Among the Stars, Year Five, 2005
501 Polarization January Challenge
502 January Revelations
503 January Showdown
504 Plea Bargain
505 For Every Action Preemptive Strike
506 Counterstrike
507 Strike III
508 Heart of Evil A Plague of Darkness
509 Destruction
510 A Hero Seeks Not Vengeance
Among the Stars, Year Five, 2006
513 EndTimes January The Heart
514 January The Hand
515 January The Eye
N/A N/A Ilum-ination (Never released)
N/A N/A Alliance of Strangers (Never released)
N/A N/A Delta Wing I: On a Wing and a Prayer (Never released)
N/A N/A Delta Wing II:A Bird in the Hand (Never released)
N/A N/A Delta Wing III:The Pirates' Nest (Never released)
N/A N/A Situation Room (Never released)

Articles

Numerous supporting articles for the Living Force campaign were published on the Wizards website. Once the campaign got underway, these typically came out once a week, most written by plot director Morrie Mullins. Many were written as supplements to specific adventures, while others detailed other events in the Cularin system, often in the format of an in-universe component followed by some out-of-universe context and/or roleplaying statistics. J.D. Wiker also wrote some articles more specifically related to roleplaying issues, such as how to properly portray a Jedi or how to create an ongoing campaign villain.

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

General articles

Continuity

The Living Force campaign was a largely stand-alone series, set against the backdrop of events depicted in the movies. It began with the events of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, and integrated various references to the events contained within. For instance, one of the early antagonists was the Metatheran Cartel, a splinter corporation that broke away from the Trade Federation. However, all the early adventures were required to occur within the Cularin system, and writers were not allowed to ulitize any plot elements or technologies from the movies.[5] In order to keep pace with the movies, a plot device was included to move that action forward ten years to the setting of Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones; achieved by removing the whole Cularin system from the galaxy through the use of a dark side artifact, and returning it to the galaxy at a later date.

One of the first external references to the Living Force campaign came in Abel G. Peña's Droids, Technology and the Force: A Clash of Phenomena published in March 2005, which involved Uffel in the Yuuzhan Vong War. Later in 2006 and 2007, Karen Traviss mentioned Cularin in both Republic Commando: Triple Zero and Republic Commando: True Colors; the Cularin system was described as Separatist-friendly which did not fully mesh with the campaign itself. The Cularin system was also the setting for Echoes of the Jedi, an adventure written by Peña and Jean-François Boivin for the Dawn of Defiance campaign. This adventure utilized many features from across the Living Force campaign.

Wizards of the Coast also included the Tarasin, Caarite, and Filordus in their Ultimate Alien Anthology. Later, Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force also made numerous references to the Jedi of the Cularin system, even directly quoting a speech given by Lanius Qel-Bertuk from Friendship in the Order. In 2008, Nirama and the Metatheran Cartel were referenced in Millennium Falcon, then a number of the characters and locations also received entries in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. Later, the Rebellion Era Campaign Guide included an adventure hook set in the Cularin system. Many of the worlds mentioned in passing in the campaign were included in the Appendix of The Essential Atlas.

Notes and references

  1. ↑ WizardsoftheCoast Acilaris on Wizards.com (original site is defunct)
  2. ↑ The Living Force Campaign Guide states that the Living Force campaign is set one year after the Invasion of Naboo, an event that is dated to 32 BBY by The New Essential Chronology.
  3. ↑ WizardsoftheCoast Living Force Character Guidelines on Wizards.com (original site is defunct)
  4. ↑ WizardsoftheCoast What's the Living Force? on Wizards.com (original site is defunct)
  5. ↑ Writers Guidelines

External links

In other languages