Podracing and Research

A long time ago in a galaxy...

No, wait.  That's not right.

Once upon a time, in a much warmer and hospitable land (except for in the summertime when you would swelter and broil under the blazing sun and needed gills to breathe through all of the humidity in the air), I ran a short-lived Star Wars campaign.  It was based around a group of rebels who traveled from planet under the guise of a podracing team.

I wanted the campaign to be as “realistic” as possible – despite the fact that it was a science fantasy setting with lightsabers, the Force, blaster pistols, interstellar travel and the hazardous racing of sleds attached to large jet engines.

My roommate and I went out and bought a copy of the Star Wars Podracing game for the PS2 and we sat down and proceeded to MAP OUT EACH ONE of the race tracks and recorded the placing results of the NPC racers so we could then determine gambling odds.  We spent weeks on the game, unlocking characters and generating game stats.  I even came up with a racing schedule, complete with byes and points earned for each race that would determine qualification to enter the Boonta Eve Classic. 

The tracks included (and I had to dig through my notes to find this list): The Mos Espa Open, Soro Suub Facility, Orotoru G'am, Watchtower Run, The Brightlands, The Badlands, The Ballast Complex, Ruins of Carnuss Gorgull, Serres Sarrano, The Grand Reefs, The Citadel, The Nightlands, and Boonta Eve Classic.

It was a pretty good time and in between attacking Imperial Forces and blowing up Star Destroyers, the party was raking in credits hand over fist to spend on further improvements of their pod and their transport ship.

The game quietly came to a close without us ever completing the schedule but it was incredibly satisfying to see the races unfold at the table with all of my players gathered around.