Clone Wars Campaign: Ycram Notwal, Befuddled Force Adept

Ycram Notwal was one of the original PCs in the Clone Wars campaign. The character, a middle-aged non-Jedi adept with the Force, was run by a player brand-new to the concept of role-playing games. Some people take to RPGs quickly and immerse themselves in the campaign; others take a little longer before they figure out how role-playing, dice rolling, and collaborative story-telling fit together to make a "game" that is far more complex than it might sound. And then there's a third category of people, who just never seem to understand what's happening or why--they just "don't get it." Ycram's player fell squarely into this last category, and she dropped out after the first story arc. Accordingly, Ycram is remembered more for inexplicable behavior and virtually disappearing for large segments of those sessions than for anything else. There are three things that come to mind when I think of Ycram's time as a PC: not once, in four sessions, did he use his Force powers; his player, confused at how role-playing worked, began making up background information and relationships with NPCs in the middle of a session, forcing me to scramble to keep the plot coherent; and an infamous incident with a spy-droid that went down as follows.

While Ycram was staying at the royal palace in the center of the city of Mongui, Ycram's player rolled high on a Perception check and Ycram accordingly noticed a spy-droid lurking about. The player stated that Ycram was going to follow it as it slowly drifted out of the palace and then began to pick up speed. The spy-droid took a circuitous path through a maze of city streets, and at every intersection Ycram's player declared that the character was continuing the pursuit. The player deftly succeeded on several further rolls to keep the spy-droid in sight, and then noticed it was headed toward the star-port. The player had Ycram continue the chase as it entered the star-port and headed toward a row of hangars. Then the player declared that Ycram was turning around and walking back to the palace. Everyone else at the table was like what?! A good five to ten minutes of game time had been spent on that little encounter, and, just as Ycram was about to discover what ship the spy-droid belonged to, he inexplicably walked away. The PCs never did find out the answer.

I actually found the character useful as an NPC later in the campaign. When last seen, Ycram was a patient at an asylum on Alderaan, ranting about how the planet was going to be destroyed . . .


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