Clone Wars Campaign: Zero & Natany

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Zero and Natany were two short-lived but quite memorable characters in our Clone Wars campaign. My wife and I always tend to speak of them together, because they both appeared at about the same time (Session 15/16), they spent most of their in-time game together as roguish buddies, and they both left at the same time (after Session 22). I never did find out why their players dropped out of the campaign, which is one of those things that makes directors doubt themselves (did they hate the last session? should I have put more scoundrel-y side quests and loot? too plot focussed?).

Zero was a Rodian scoundrel. He joined the team as a hired investigator looking for exculpatory evidence during the big Trial story-arc when they were accused of war crimes. Zero and Natany weren't a lot of help in the beginning, but then they got their act together and recovered a surprising array of useful information for the defense.

A couple of the funniest things I remember about Zero is that before his first appearance, he purchased a quite expensive and elaborate blaster pistol that had like three different functions (I think it fired darts, grenades, and something else)--of course, in his first session he rolled a critical fumble and on the chart, it read "weapon destroyed." Although he got the gun repaired, he never did use any of the special settings. The other thing I remember is that, when Arresta purchased a ship, she hired Zero as the pilot. The first time space combat came around, he took that little freighter on a crazy charge right towards a massive Trade Federation battleship, much to the frantic dismay of his colleagues. They lived to tell the tale, but that was actually Zero's last appearance in the game.

Natany was a Ryn, an obscure species in Star Wars that is known for (a) having a tail, (b) a lack of hygiene, and (c) the ability to play their noses like a flute. I'm not sure why, but the player who ran Natany never seemed to like it when people brought these things up during the game. Natany's biggest claim to fame took place when the group travelled to a salvage yard to question a crotchety old man about the whereabouts of a Separatist base. As these things are wont to do, several droidekas attacked and, before being destroyed, set fire to the old man's hut. Natany pulled the thankless old man out of the fire and the group left. After they had travelled several kilometers away, Natany returned to the salvage yard to confront the old man about his lack of gratitude. It was enormously funny at the time, and one of the few things that gave the character some personality (his player was rather quiet, and Natany usually stayed in the background).