I was five years old running around my grandmother’s living room holding a Kenner X-Wing fighter. The couch was the hull of a space station. The hexagonal end table beyond the couch was the station’s reactor core. Stormtrooper figures stood on top of the couch, manning turrets, trying to take out the snubfighter. Darth Vader stood on the couch’s arm, watching the X-Wing dive down into the gap between couch and table.
But the Empire wasn’t going to take this lying down. A Kenner TIE Fighter gave chase to the X-Wing as it headed back to the space station the Rebellion was using as a base. The structure was made of Sesame Street blocks, cardboard rectangles each a foot long and six inches wide. Stacked together, these blocks former an immense base, which the X-Wing could fly between sections of… if I was really careful. The TIE fighter just wanted to blow it up.
An amazing thing happened over the years. Micro Machines released a line of Star Wars vehicles. I couldn’t put my action figures inside them, but they gave me something I’d never had before… a bigger scale. These things were tiny compared to their Kenner counterparts… and the couch and end table were enormous in comparison. By default, the couch base was more colossal, a bigger threat. The stormtroopers firing turrets were huge. A single blast could destroy my X-Wing fighter as it hugged the surface of the base. I could lower my head to be level with the couch cushion and follow the X-Wing to the end of the couch and rise with it over the arm to see the breathtakingly huge reactor core in comparison with the X-Wing.
Then, when the X-Wing was chased back to the Sesame Street block tower space station, it was a whole other level of awesomeness. I could have a handful of TIE fighters in one hand chasing the lone X-Wing back to base. All the ships could squeeze between the blocks and weave around the base like bees around a tree. And if I messed up and bumped a block, bringing a section tumbling down, I’d let go of a Micro Machine TIE fighter and let it tumble with the blocks. It was as exciting as any of the TIE fighter explosion special effects from the movie.
Stars Wars toys taught me a lot in my formative years. The most important is the effect of scale on those playing or viewing. If I could have had a couch as big as the block to use as a massive space station to be in scale with my X-Wing, I would have. But the smaller Micro Machine X-Wings compared to the couch did just fine.
I brought that lesson with me to the gaming table when doing the Threat Detected sessions. When Tor and company went up against Darga the Hutt, I used the Kenner Episode IV Special Edition Jabba figure as Darga. This was a gross approximation to scale to be sure, but it didn’t matter. This as the BBEG from the past two modules in all its hideous glory, looming over the heroes, gloating menacingly. This figure conveyed the emotional response from my players I’d wanted. I’d forgotten about this until Tony, who played Tor, reminded me of this and how it enhanced his enjoyment of the encounter.
Few things say Star Wars awesomeness more than Imperial Walkers. I always say the Battle of Hoth is my favorite Star Wars moment hands down. Being in the theaters, you could hear the tremor impact with each step of the AT-AT. Luke was about half the height of the walker’s foot.
When I wanted to use AT-ATs in Threat Detected, the players now at a level where they can handle these threats, I brought in two Kenner AT-ATs, one vintage and one Special Edition era. I laid a battle grid over fifteen feet long. The walkers started on one side. The PCs and their vehicles were on the other. Of course I expected Tor, the Jedi, to use the Force to topple a walker. When it happened, I walked over to the toy, shook it, slowly lifted it and then turned it on its side before putting it back down. The players had great perspective of the power of the Force that day, seeing something unimaginably larger than their characters and vehicles being lifted and dropped.
Of course I had a backup plan. The AT-AT kept firing, even though it was on its side. Tor and friends hurried to it, sliced their way through the armor with lightsabers (imagine WOTC Star Wars minis on top of a toppled Kenner AT-AT while other PCs whisked overhead in Kenner X-Wings, continuing to attack the other AT-AT.
Once the heroes reached the cockpit of the toppled walker, the pilot hit the self-destruction switch. They had two rounds to cover an incredible amount of squares before they got caught in the AT-AT’s explosion radius. Some of the campaign’s most memorable moments happened during that tense escape. Yes, natural one’s were rolled. People needed to be rescued as they fell off their vehicles as the shockwave struck and the debris cloud spread to consume all.
That encounter took up an entire university classroom. The scale of the encounter could not have been accomplished any other way.
Now, with Fantasy Flight’s Star Wars line, we don’t have to worry about counting squares for movement. However, I recommend using a combination of Star Wars toys to convey the emotional impact of characters’ arrival. A foot tall Darth Vader doll has more emotional effect than a WOTC miniature, or a Kenner action figure.
When your players go up against a Star Destroyer or other massive ship, break out the Kenner Millennium Falcon to represent the big ship and have the Micro Machines, WotC or FFG X-Wings game ships to represent the heroes’ vehicles.
Scale is not just about realistic comparisons. In storytelling, it’s a tool to express emotion and impact.
