Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Advice & Inspiration for Gaming Andor

There will be times when the struggle seems impossible.”

Nemik’s Manifesto

Watching the Star Wars series Andor has me thinking about running a D6 Star Wars Roleplaying Game campaign again (assuming I had any interested players...). Back in my younger years, toward the end of the 20th century, I would have hoped to see a specific roleplaying game sourcebook covering all elements we saw in Andor: planets, weapons, characters, locations, vehicles, starships, organizations, character templates, and gamemaster advice But after 30 years, multiple versions of an official Star Wars roleplaying game, and a flood of Star Wars media I’m encouraged I — and maybe the hobby overall — have grown from focusing on formally published game supplements to embracing the wealth of media resources available in today’s information landscape so fans can create their own do-it-yourself roleplaying game experiences in their favorite settings. So I’m re-watching the media, browsing through relevant sources (and eyeing new ones), and, in reflecting on the kinds of stories in a resistance-driven “Dawn of Rebellion” era, looking to similar, adjacent resources for knowledge and inspiration.

I’ve lost track if any publisher still holds the current license to produce Star Wars roleplaying game material. Perhaps the days of comprehensive and official roleplaying game sourcebooks for media properties are gone. At West End Games I sometimes felt the roleplaying game license was barely tolerable to Lucasfilm with fastidious approvals and our arguably pedantic stickling over continuity in the expanded universe (and no doubt a measly royalties income with a great outlay of effort).

In my search for game-useful information about Andor I found an ever-helpful DK guide for the Dawn of Rebellion period covering Andor’s first season and the Kenobi series (which I found interesting but not quite as compelling as Andor). I already have DK’s Rogue One guide, will probably get Star Wars: Dawn of Rebellion: The Visual Guide at some point, and hope to see one covering Andor season two soon. These kinds of books emerged for Star Wars fandom during my time at West End and they’re engaging for non-gaming fans as well as hardcore gamers. This fare seems to have supplanted game sourcebooks, with gamers left to stat out relevant bits as needed (which most gamemasters can easily do in a pinch).

Sourcebook cover mock-up
by Khairul Hisham.
I also happened upon a few online fan resources. In the absence of any official roleplaying game material these do a solid job describing elements seen in the series (in an unofficial way, though no doubt sticking to whatever continuity one can find) and providing game stats for them. Joshua Clark’s Andor Sourcebook (based on the first season) comes in handy PDF format presented in the glorious West End Games trade dress and graphic layout...with game stats for the Fantasy Flight Games version of the roleplaying game. (Sorry, the FFG version is just not my thing, though your mileage may vary, and I respect that.) The SWRPGGM site — a wealth of resources on its own — also offers (and continues expanding) an Andor Source Guide. Both prove comprehensive, admirable references compiled by devoted fans and accessible on the internet. It offers stats and lore adhering as closely to official sources as possible for characters, locations, weapons, gear, vehicles, planets, starships, droids, and aliens. It’s the kind of fan-creative resource for which the internet was created.

A cursory perusal of these inspired fan efforts revealed no scenario ideas, character templates, or any section on how to run resistance-style adventures or creating Rebel cells and networks. I can whip up short stat blocks for most elements quickly...or adapt them from fan sources or the media itself.* My greatest roleplaying gaming challenge in any setting comes from finding guidance and inspiration in the kinds of stories we can tell: developing meaningful setting components that work together with compelling characters (themselves inspired by relevant templates) to create tension and conflict to propel the storyline.

* I’ll admit one of the few vehicles that really caught my eye (and found stats for at the SWRPGGM site) was the Imperial Troop Transport Ground (ITTG) seen in the early episodes of Andor season two; it’s appearance was obviously inspired by Nazi half-tracks like the Hanomag Sd.Kfz 251.

DIY Resources

Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction.”

Nemik’s Manifesto

Certainly one of the best bits of advice in this regard comes from Star Wars gaming itself: “Our adventures happen just off screen.” Re-watch the media; imagine what’s happening off in the wings. Start there...and keep going in your own direction where the action and characters take you. Some gamemasters take a DIY approach to their roleplaying game worlds. Whether based on a publisher’s setting or a media setting, they stake their own claim with original creations and trust the players and their characters to explore the stories that matter to them. Gamemasters and players make the fictional world their own. (At the risk of dredging up embarrassing skeletons from the roleplaying game hobby closet, I’ll mention how Empire of the Petal Throne creator M.A.R. Barker frequently told folks that everyone had their own version of his world of Tékumel as explored and detailed in their own game adventures.)

In the absence of official gamebooks we turn to other sources, like the aforementioned DK guides and fan reference sites. We can also look at adjacent materials, such as other roleplaying game books and even historical resources about similar situations we can mine for ideas and even port entire components into our own games.

In looking back at some of the classic and exemplary West End Star Wars Roleplaying Game sourcebooks a few stand out as offering good outlines demonstrating what a campaign setting guide can offer. Rules of Engagement: The Rebel Specforce Handbook by Timothy S. O’Brien regrettably came toward the end of the company’s license but saw great popularity given the unusual and gritty nature of its subject. Sure, it covered the necessary stats one expects and a host of relevant character templates (actually somewhat like their Republic counterparts in the Clone Wars: Bad Batch series years later); but it also provided practical coverage of operations, mission outlines, unit organization, bases, and even tactical knowledge. Other sourcebooks offered guidance and inspiration about their themes, too — Galaxy Guide 6: Tramp Freighters, Galaxy Guide 8: Scouts, Galaxy Guide 10: Bounty Hunters, Pirates & Privateers, even Platt’s Smugglers Guide with adventure ideas and campaign outlines, advice on what elements one finds in thematic scenarios, specifics on how to operate in that sector of galactic society, and new character templates to demonstrate the elements that fuel specifically themed campaigns. They help answer the roleplaying game question “Who are the characters and what can they do here?”

Real-world history can also inform and inspire a Star Wars Dawn of Rebellion roleplaying game campaign. The action in Andor is very reminiscent of resistance against fascist occupation in World War II: Special Operations Executive (SOE), the Maquis in France (with various factions), counteringelligence operations, and just general underground activity against a brutal occupying enemy. (Andor’s second season intentionally or unintentionally draws on this history, depicting some aspects of Ghorman with French undertones.) Curious gamers can find plenty of resources about this historical period, both overviews of operations and personal accounts for a character-level perspective.

The local bookstore or library can provide a host of options, though lately I’ve delved into more recent biographies of women in special operations. (No doubt these influenced my views on aspects of Andor.) Kate Vigurs’ Mission France: The True History of the Women of SOE and Mission Europe: The Secret History of the Women of SOE offer personal narratives, from recruitment and training to operations and, in some cases, capture, torture, and execution. Sonia Purnell’s A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II examines the extraordinary life and intelligence activities of Virginia Hall, who worked behind the lines in France for SOE and later the OSS, all while coping with a wooden prosthetic leg (which she named Cuthbert). Clare Mulley provides two excellent examples of covert operatives from Poland: The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville follows the bold escapades of Krystyna Skarbek, who traveled across Europe and the Middle East gathering intelligence before aiding the Maquis in occupied France; and Agent Zo: The Untold Story of a Fearless World War II Resistance Fighter, following the daring and wide-ranging activities of Elzbieta Zawacka as she traversed occupied Europe in missions to aid the Polish underground, trained in England, and returned via parachute to fight in the Warsaw Uprising. Individual vignettes in these volumes echo numerous episodes of similar action in Andor: cautious recruitment, clandestine communications; enemy counterintelligence; contacting agents and organizing cells; establishing and operating with cover identities; arranging equipment drops and thefts; sabotage; assassination; infiltration and exfiltration; security leaks and betrayals; even prison escapes.

H. Keith Melton’s Ultimate Spy (a well-illustrated DK guide) provides some historical context and plenty of inspiration for espionage tradecraft, including information on WWII resistance operations. Along these lines I’d also recommend a primary source from WWII that hopefully remains available online: the OSS Simple Sabotage Field Manual(The text is also preserved at Project Gutenberg.) It offers ideas intended for average people opposing occupying forces in WWII...with ideas easily adapted for use in a resistance roleplaying campaign.

These resources provide a glimpse into the world of covert operations against occupying forces for those who need an extra boost beyond what we see in Andor. Those familiar with Star Wars can easily adapt historical elements for their resistance campaign.

Brainstorming

Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy.”

Nemik’s Manifesto

What would I put in an Andor sourcebook simply by using the media, similar game books, and historical resources? What elements might I focus on in developing my own resistance campaign? I’ll leave the stats to those better suited and more dedicated to that work. They’re a handy reference, but they serve the story...and that’s where the players and gamemasters shine. I started thinking about some of the important issues gamemasters should consider running a resistance campaign. This is more an outline of notes than any formal soucebook; perhaps it might guide and inspire others gaming in the Dawn of Rebellion era.

Character Templates: I’ll tackle the easy part first. More so than other Star Wars roleplaying game templates, those for a resistance campaign emerge from the environment. They’re often ordinary people pushed to extraordinary action by intrusive Imperial oppression in their everyday lives. Maybe it’s a slow burn, little things that push them over the edge; perhaps it’s a single jarring incident that thrusts them into full-time resistance. Ask players to envision their characters as ordinary people in a particular setting — and what might goad them toward covert opposition activities — and create templates that work for them. Look at characters in Andor and develop similar templates: Retired Scavenger (Marva), Black Market Dealer (Bix), Zealot Rebel (Saw Gerrera), Massacre Survivor (Cinta Kaz), Escaped Prison Laborer (Ruescott Melshi), Idealistic Intellectual (Karis Nemik). Looking to the WWII covert operations sources, one might have a Courier, Comms Expert, Scrounger, or Cell Leader. And, of course, use or adapt existing templates. Throughout the series we see characters who fit various archetypes: Andor as the Outlaw, Luthen Rael as the Arrogant Noble (with a ruthless edge), Mon Mothma as an Old Senatorial.

Contacts: Developing a stock of gamemaster characters provides Rebel cells plenty of resources and potential adventure hooks. Sure, you’ll need average soldiers for the resistance, Empire, Fringers, and average galactic citizens. But spend some time making key gamemaster characters with depth and complex motivations. Create each with some ways they can help characters, talents and functions to aid in various operations, along with their own interests (and reason for helping the resistance) and vulnerabilities the Empire might exploit to turn them against the characters if discovered. A shopkeeper who doesn’t mind covering for meetings and dead drops. A vehicle owner who turns a blind eye when someone borrows their repulsorlift transport. Stardock workers who can divert necessary supplies. The local sentry who overlooks squatters using a nondescript location for a safe house. The turncoat Imperial who can provide minor bits of intelligence and low-level access codes. Starport workers who can ease agents through security checkpoints and onto transports. The mysterious stranger who offers funding, intelligence, and supplies...in return for a favor. Who helps the protagonists in Andor navigate their undercover world? How might similar characters aid heroes in a game campaign?

Locations: Create environments suitable for resistance activities at the general and specific levels. Sprawling cities where characters can melt into the crowd, conduct meetings, and establish safe houses. Favorite cafes, shops with secondary purposes, public plazas, government offices, apartments, houses, and estates of sympathetic citizens willing to help, and transportation hubs. Remote yet accessible areas for training, supply caches, and hidden bases. Tie a contact to each location whether they’re of primary or secondary importance; give these contacts motives and liabilities linked to the setting.

Adventure Ideas: We already have some guidance on these. What kind of operations do we see in Andor that might form the basis for a scenario? Meet a shady contact for a black market deal. Plan a heist to steal funds, technology, or weapons for the resistance. Extract compromised agents or influential allies (or eliminate them before they can talk). Obtain and confirm vital intelligence. Assassinate a traitor or take vengeance on a villain. Cultivate new agents, sources, or allies and verify their intent or loyalty. Move contraband, concealed intelligence, or fellow agents through enemy controlled areas. Infiltrate Imperial facilities to search data networks for vital intelligence. Deal with rival resistance factions with their own methods and agendas. Assassinate double agents or key enemy personnel. Take a plot and swap out some locations, adversaries, and other specifics for elements related to the characters. Most of these operations also have precedents in historical resistance activities if you need more inspiration. If all else fails, turn to S. John Ross’ Big List of RPG Plots: pick a plot, dress it up with Star Wars trappings, adapt it with elements from your campaign (or tied to the player’s characters), give it some resistance twists, and get the heroes going. Tie it all together by defining conflicts: what does the Empire do to whom, how does it inflict suffering, and what do the oppressed do to resist?

Know Your Tradecraft: Running any thematic roleplaying game requires a great deal of knowledge about how the setting works, specifically about how characters do things. Andor provides some good examples of tradecraft, both successful and otherwise: using signs to indicate the need for a meeting...or warn of a compromised location; establishing locations for stashes, safe houses, and covert gatherings; methods of identifying and losing tails...or leading them on; communicating with codes and ciphers, both electronically and using physical dead drops or everyday items to signal; using resources, including those from the criminal underworld, even turning some of those resources into resistance assets; using code phrase exchanges to identify allies (“I have friends everywhere.”). The aforementioned historical resources about spies, sabotage, and resistance operations can also help illustrate other aspects of tradecraft: creating concealment containers from ordinary items; building a spy’s cover or “legend” along with supporting forged documents; procedures for inserting and exfiltrating agents; methods of evading searches and checkpoints, arranging for supply drops, receiving and distributing material. I recommend a visit to the International Spy Museum if possible; if not, the DK Ultimate Spy guide serves as a solid primer.

Themes: Some key thematic elements run through Andor and any resistance story, fictional or historical. Suspicion abounds, betrayal lurks behind every person, agents can trust nobody. Many accounts of resistance fighters in WWII note the constant stress working undercover behind enemy lines in an environment where danger lurks everywhere and lax security can compromise their mission or comrades. When will enemy forces close in, spring and ambush, or hunt down rebel cells? Every action they take might arouse suspicion. As Nemik says in his manifesto, “There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy.”

Any era in the Star Wars canon offers rich opportunities for roleplaying game adventures with their own characteristic atmosphere. Analyzing the source material, seeking parallels in history, literature, or other fields, and applying them to your campaign helps infuse adventures with greater depth that resonates with players and enhances the stories played out at the game table. These suggestions for a Dawn of Rebellion setting aren’t restricted to my particularly favorite D6 Star Wars Roleplaying Game — feel free to stat things out as you like — but they offer ideas fans could modify to whatever system they’d prefer. They’re not even limited to Star Wars. Apply them to historical WWII roleplaying, or a fantasy world with an overarching oppressive villain, or indeed any setting in which ordinary people, tired of suffering beneath the cruel gauntlet of a tyrant, rise up and resist, in quiet or bold ways, to fight for a better way of life.

The frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.”

Nemik’s Manifesto



1 comment:

  1. Believe it or not, but I had the Imperial Troop Transport toy back in the seventies. I was completely baffled by it, but I played with it nonetheless. My memory is a bit hazy but I think the toy came with a comic showing the vehicle being used to attack the sand crawler. It's cool to now see it officially on the screen.

    The Heretic

    ReplyDelete

We welcome civil discussion and polite engagement. We reserve the right to remove comments that do not respect others in this regard.