Welcome aboard Dame Metropolis, the largest, most majestic cruise starship in the entire galaxy. During your stay with us, hobnob with the movers and shakers of the galaxy over lunch at the Imperial restaurant or mingle with elite society at a charity fund-raising gala. Relax on the sand in the Beach Zone or enjoy a vigorous swim in our sector-sized pool. Prefer the cold? Hit the slopes or ice rink at the Snowscape. Runners, there are plenty of places for you to get a workout, too! Cool down afterwards in the meditative gardens. The more scientifically-minded might enjoy a lecture from a resident professor or the stellar phenomena visible from the Observation Lounge. You younglings will be well-cared for in entertainment facilities that include a reconfigurable playground and a holo-park. Parents, leave them in our care while you get your shopping done on the Bazaar Deck. Any extra baggage can be stowed safely in our secure cargo holds. And don’t forget to get a tour of the bridge from the captain! Our friendly staff will be on hand at all times to help you with any logistical, medical, or scheduling needs. Leave the concerns of the galaxy behind as you step aboard Dame Metropolis.
Star Wars: Cruise Control is played using Fantasy Flight Games’ Genesys and Star Wars roleplaying materials and the Mythic GM Emulator, set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.
Background
After completing our Star Wars: Resh Hour trilogy with the Mythic GM Emulator, my spouse and I batted around ideas for what other spin-off stories could be fun to tell in the expanded universe of our old Desert Rose Solutions campaign. Renci’s and Renn’s stories had run their course, having grown from NPCs to PCs in their own right. For a while we considered various other NPCs of the DRS campaign who could get upgraded to PCs. One idea I kept coming back to, though, was another adventure for Renci’s girlfriend, JT (my spouse’s PC in the original DRS crew). What would JT get up to following the intervention that Renci staged to get JT back on track after her Dark Side experiences? We knew from the close of the DRS campaign that JT had wanted to spend more time on a set of charities she had helped start, but how could we make that into an adventure?
I came up with the concept of a charity fund-raising gala held on a space cruise disrupted by a mutiny. After asking around on the old FFG forums for ideas [ref, ref2], we started play with the Mythic GME in one hand and the WEG module Riders of the Maelstrom in the other. We do not follow the plot of that module, but it was an excellent source to draw from. I also pulled some ideas from FFG’s Suns of Fortune source book, as well as the novel Leia, Princess of Alderaan, by Claudia Gray. FFG’s Allies and Adversaries and the SWRPG adversary decks helped fill the ship with NPCs, and we frequently consulted the fan-made Environmental Set Pieces, as well.
Setup
Another thing we wanted to try out with this game was playing Star Wars with Genesys as our character creation rule set, rather than all the FFG SWRPG books. JT was way above +1000 XP by the end of the DRS campaign, and my spouse rebuilt her in Genesys with only +275 XP. In addition, we experimented with basing Force powers on the Genesys magic rules. The narrative explanation for these changes is that JT’s experience with the Dark Side following the Desert Rose Solutions campaign really changed her, and she is still recovering from that.
For this new adventure, my spouse would be playing JT as in the original DRS campaign, but we were not sure who I should play. We didn’t want to include JT’s girlfriend Renci in the mix, since she was now more my spouse’s PC than my NPC. Rather than try to force a reason for some other pre-existing NPC to tag along, I offered to take the lead on GMing the opening scenes with the intention of eventually introducing a new PC who could complement JT’s skill set. This had an added benefit of giving me the opportunity to try out some Genesys talents that were new to us, and I pulled some from FFG’s Realms of Terrinoth.
And so I present to you Cruise Control, a wacky psychological drama/tale of derring-do featuring Imperials, Rebels, Force users, mutineers, vigilantes, crime bosses, droid liberators, secret identities, chases, escapes, investigations, combat—both physical and social—and a charity gala dinner, of course.