Lore and Legends of the Dezzyverse

Life Path Emergent Storytelling From Star Wars

Most of us know the stories by now. Indeed, they’re archetypes in Science Fiction roleplaying. Luke and Leia grow up in two separate environments and end up in the same place at the start of Act 2 of their movie.

Their backstories (pre-carreer), and not counting their secret space-twin connection are as follows;
Luke grows up raised by his Aunt and Uncle on Tatooine living on a moisture farm outside of Anchorhead. He gets his background traits bulls-eyeing Womp Rats in his T-16. So we’ll call his background skills Mechanic/0 (because he grew up fixing everything on the farm, from vaporators to droids, to his beater of a Landspeeder), Survival/0 (because he knows how to live out in the Dune Sea), and Flyer/0 (y’know because “He’s the best bush pilot in the outer rim territories”). All Luke wants in this moment is to go to the Acadamy and join his friends learning how to pilot space-fighters.

Leia grows up adopted by Senator Organa and his Wife. She gets the *best* education on Alderaan, and is literally prepared to follow in her dad’s footsteps as a radical politician and join the fight to re-ignite the Republic. We’ll give her an EDU of between 9 and 11 for an extra background skill. She gets background skills Admin/0, Profession (Politician)/0, Diplomat/0, and Deception/0 (it breaks the Background List rules as presented in the Traveller Core Rulebook, but Leia has a pretty strong backstory. Leia should have attended a University somewhere, probably on Alderaan or Coruscant, but the Rebellion needs her to receive some stolen Imperial plans and hunt down Obi-Wan Kenobi.

These two eighteen year olds don’t even get to start their Star Wars Campaign with their first term. We can say their players failed their Qualification rolls.

Moving On Past A New Hope

There’s a period of time between the battle of Yavin IV and the beginning of Empire Strikes Back, we can call this Luke and Leia’s “Term 1”. Both are, in effect “drafted” into the Rebellion. Leia drafts in as a Noble/Diplomat (hey, she’s the daughter of Senator Organa of Alderaan, she breaks all sorts of rules, that Rebel Girl) and definitely gets a 2 Promotions before Hoth. She’s Rank 2 (2nd Secretary) and has Admin/1 because of it. She also gets Electronics/0, Investigate/0 and Persuade/0 as she gets Gun Combat (Energy)/1.

Luke is drafted into the Rebellion Navy/Flight. He has Psi and Telepathy/0 and Clairvoyance/0 (“reach out with your feelings”) because of his time with Ben Kenobi, but we’re still not at Dagobah yet so he’s not learning under Yoda at the beginning of Empire. He learns Pilot/0, Vacc Suit/0, Athletics/0, Gunner/0, and Gun Combat/0. We’ll give Luke a Commission (y’know because he blew up the Death Star and got a shiny medal for it) which will get him Melee (Blade)/1 and his Skill for this term is Pilot (small craft)1.

By the end of Empire Strikes Back, Luke has started training under Master Yoda, and Leia continues her career as a leader in the Rebel Alliance.

Return of the Jedi (… Like There Could Have Been ANY OTHER Title for this Section)

This is Luke’s 2nd Term is Psion/ Psi Warrior. We’ll cheat again and give him a Promotion to Rank 1 (because “So I am a Jedi?” “No, not yet, Vader, there still is.”) That gives him Gun Combat (energy) 1 Yoda also (famously in Empire Strikes Back) trains him in Telekinesis/0 (as Rey laments, “lifting rocks”) For his term 2 skill, Luke rolled Recon/1

Leia’s 2nd Term is Noble/Diplomat. She earns another promotion to Rank 3 (1st Secretary) and gets Advocate/1. Her skills this term gets her Persuasion/1 and Leadership/1. At the battle of Endor, the Rebellion changes from “the Rebel Alliance” to “the New Republic”. We’ll end Luke and Leia’s “lifepath backstory” here. They’re Travellers now.

Yub Nub! Eee Chop Yub Nub!

As Luke and Leia begin their adventuring careers (though, I’d must say, ending your character generation backstory with defeating the Empire, overthrowing the Sith, and redeeming your evil Father, isn’t the type of backstory I’d recommend, cause where do you go after blowing up two Death Stars? (we’re not gonna address the Disney sequel trilogy in this essay)). Both are 26 years old at the end of Return of the Jedi (2 Terms) and are still young so far as Traveller is concerned.

Luke musters out with an X-Wing (we’ll call it a “ship” though X-Wings are too small for Jump Drives, but when crossing the streams like this, we can just handwave the issue) and his own Lightsaber. He doesn’t have any Republic Credits in his pocket, but he’s a Jedi Knight, he’ll get by. He’s also got some strong allies in the new government so when he steps up and asks for some help building a new Jedi Temple to form the new Jedi Order.

Leia gets three mustering out benefits (because she’s Rank 3). So, she’ll probably get a +2 SOC as she transitions from Rebel to her new position in the New Republic and 100 KCr. Her connections and position can swing her a Republic Yacht for Diplomatic Missions, but she’s also got Han Solo as a romantic Partner, he’s got the Millenium Falcon, and let’s be 100 here. Han ain’t gonna say no to Leia when she needs to have him and Chewie fly the Falcon to a new adventure.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Luke and Leia’s adventures following the Battle of Endor are well documented. Even without skipping 32 years to The Force Awakens. There’s hundreds of novels, comic titles, television series, and the list goes on, which tell in great detail how Leia and Han get married, and Luke falls in love with Mara Jade, The rise of a second Empire, the clones of Palpatine, The Yuuzhan Vong invasion, and, of course Grogu.

The classic Traveller Supplement 4 Citizens of the Imperium has stats for Luke and Darth Vader in it’s appendix (and, I’d like to add, a year before Empire Strikes Back revealed that Vader is Luke’s father) Star Wars rests pretty deep in Traveller’s game DNA. And the journey of Luke and Leia (both of whom are characters who start their stories at 19 years old) makes for a great example of mapping Traveller character generation on to their example.