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| Cover photo courtesy Wookieepedia |
Adventure title: Battle For The Golden Sun
Author(s): Doug Kaufman
Published: June 1988
The Pitch: The Rebels crash-land on a waterworld in search of a Rebel ambassador. Instead they find seatroopers, warring natives and a giant piece of Force-sensitive coral.
Summary: A decent adventure that throws the PCs in the battle between two factions of natives that, despite showing off an Imperial garrison poster and a seatrooper on the cover, puts the Galactic Civil War in the background for a session or two.
In-depth review with SPOILERS after the jump!
The Rebels crash land on the ocean planet of Sedri. This is mostly by design, as the planet has a substance called Golden Sun which confuses sensors and requires anyone landing on the planet to disable the safety protocols on most hyperdrives to not think the planet is a sun. The Rebels are there to recover Mors Ondrian, a Rebel agent who discovered the planet by accident. They are accompanied by his assistant Rekara, a Mon Calamari who was driven slightly mad by the piece of Golden Sun she brought off-world as evidence of its existence. The Rebels quickly come across a native Sedrian being accosted by some Imperial Seatroopers, who happens to be the son of the local tribal chieftain. Pek, the Sedrian, takes the Rebels back home to introduce them to his father and the local intrigues that include Karak, a rival to the throne who ends up being the true villain of the piece. The Rebels are convinced the Imperials have the Rebel and sneak off to the garrison to free him.
As it turns out, the trip to the garrison is a red herring. Karak has the Rebel agent and has cut a deal with the Imperials for their assistance in a raid on the Sedrian city. This assistance includes a Swimmer, which is the body of an AT-AT turned into a repulsorlift battleship. When the Rebels fight off the advance, they chase Karak down into the caves where the heart of the Golden Sun lies and must convince the Golden Sun, which is a sentient, Force sensitive giant piece of coral, that they have its best interests in mind and not give Karak its power.
As it turns out, the trip to the garrison is a red herring. Karak has the Rebel agent and has cut a deal with the Imperials for their assistance in a raid on the Sedrian city. This assistance includes a Swimmer, which is the body of an AT-AT turned into a repulsorlift battleship. When the Rebels fight off the advance, they chase Karak down into the caves where the heart of the Golden Sun lies and must convince the Golden Sun, which is a sentient, Force sensitive giant piece of coral, that they have its best interests in mind and not give Karak its power.
The Design
This adventure has a pretty coherent plotline that throws the players into the middle of the struggle between the good guy Sedrians and the ambitious usurper. The Sedrians play into many of the Noble Savage cliches that plague other Star Wars aliens, but its something that's an expected trope in the setting at this point. The whole adventure has something of a space western feel to it, which makes it feel like it could have been part of the original Marvel Comics run, where the writers went back to the sources Lucas drew upon for Star Wars.
The Sedri, as aliens, are a decent fit for Star Wars. They are drawn as slightly more humanoid sea lions and their main location, the city of Fitsay, is decently fleshed out. There's even space for details on idioms the Sedri use in their speech, such as describing the Imperials as fishkillers.
The original version of this has one of those big gorgeous fold-out maps, this time of the Imperial Garrison that's being built on Sedri. The fold-out has been the centerpiece encounter in the other adventures, but it is almost entirely optional in this adventure. The adventure suggests going into the garrison is entirely optional, even though the artwork features a lot of Imperial Seatroopers. It almost feels like someone up the editorial chain (or perhaps Lucasfilm) didn't think an adventure with no Stormtroopers to shoot up wouldn't sell, so the garrison was added in a later draft just to be safe.
There's a also a collection of great GM advice scattered in sidebars through the document. This was a period of game design where adversarial GMs where often encouraged, so it was refreshing to see a lot of advice about rewarding players for crazy plans rather than punishing them in the name of realism. Between Star Wars, Paranoia and Ghostbusters, WEG was a big source of this type of advice, which might explain why I've gravitated to their games over the years.
The Sedri, as aliens, are a decent fit for Star Wars. They are drawn as slightly more humanoid sea lions and their main location, the city of Fitsay, is decently fleshed out. There's even space for details on idioms the Sedri use in their speech, such as describing the Imperials as fishkillers.
The original version of this has one of those big gorgeous fold-out maps, this time of the Imperial Garrison that's being built on Sedri. The fold-out has been the centerpiece encounter in the other adventures, but it is almost entirely optional in this adventure. The adventure suggests going into the garrison is entirely optional, even though the artwork features a lot of Imperial Seatroopers. It almost feels like someone up the editorial chain (or perhaps Lucasfilm) didn't think an adventure with no Stormtroopers to shoot up wouldn't sell, so the garrison was added in a later draft just to be safe.
There's a also a collection of great GM advice scattered in sidebars through the document. This was a period of game design where adversarial GMs where often encouraged, so it was refreshing to see a lot of advice about rewarding players for crazy plans rather than punishing them in the name of realism. Between Star Wars, Paranoia and Ghostbusters, WEG was a big source of this type of advice, which might explain why I've gravitated to their games over the years.
Canon Compatibility
This is another adventure that sort of exists on its own without any real connections to the greater universe. Take out the Imperials and you could probably run this adventure for any space opera type of game. This could just as easily be a Star Trek adventure.
The Golden Sun entity has some vague connections to the Force. I wish these connections would have been explored in the text more strongly, but I assume that Lucasfilm was not too keen on any real details of the Force coming out in the RPG. The good guy tribal leader and the villain both have some slight Force abilities to represent their connection with the Golden Sun. It's assumed in the text that any Force-sensitive PC will have an easier time communing with the Golden Sun in the end battle, but even if your PCs don't have one, the Sun will reach out.
The Golden Sun entity has some vague connections to the Force. I wish these connections would have been explored in the text more strongly, but I assume that Lucasfilm was not too keen on any real details of the Force coming out in the RPG. The good guy tribal leader and the villain both have some slight Force abilities to represent their connection with the Golden Sun. It's assumed in the text that any Force-sensitive PC will have an easier time communing with the Golden Sun in the end battle, but even if your PCs don't have one, the Sun will reach out.
Special Modifications
The lost world aspect of the planet and the Force connection of the Golden Sun make this seem like a good adventure for any Jedi PCs in your party to shine. I'd amp up the mysticism of the Golden Sun and make the quest be for a lost Jedi instead. A planet that you need to crash-land on seems like a good place for a refugee of Order 66 to hide out on, so making Mors Ondrian a Failed Jedi seems like a no brainer. This also means Rekara is his old padawan, who came across a piece of Golden Sun that talks to her. She insists the rock talks to her and tells her that Mors is alive, and she enlists the PCs to help her find the old man.
Final Thoughts
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this adventure. The aliens in the WEG books can be hit or miss, but I felt the Sedrians, as a one-off species, worked fine here. This seems like a great adventure to run as something of an off-speed episode to cleanse the palette after clashing with the Imperials again and again for a few episodes. They do have a presence in the adventure as written, but it can be dialed up or down as the GM sees fit.
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