Tabletop Squadron
AN EDGE OF THE EMPIRE ACTUAL PLAY PODCAST
What is Tabletop Squadron?
Tabletop Squadron is a Star Wars actual play podcast set during the time of The Empire. We release every other Thursday and can be found on iTunes, Spotify, and most podcast apps. Our show is lighthearted and silly, but with plenty of room for character development and feelings.
Who are you?
The members of Tabletop Squadron are a group of friends out of Texas who have been playing rpgs together for a few years now.
Our story starts out following Karma, a no-nonsense Nautolan bounty hunter, Sabos, a confused Togrutan wannabe-politican, Xianna, a Twi’lek thief who’s the definition of “hot mess”, and Tink, a large and lovable Gigoran slicer. Having been hired by a mysterious benefactor to complete some less than legal jobs, they, and their ship the Afternoon Delight, hop from planet to planet and hope to stay under the Empire’s radar.
You can find out more about our players in the Players section, and more about the characters they play in the Characters sections.
The show often features guest players in a variety of roles.
What system does Tabletop Squadron use?
We use Fantasy Flight Game’s Edge of the Empire system. It is the most current Star Wars role playing system. It uses a unique dice system that allows for more outcomes than just “failure” and “success”, which makes it great for narrative games (for example, when you find an escape route, but that escape route turns out to be a trash shoot).
So Star Wars, is this a family show then?
Short answer: No.
Long answer: we explore the darker side of the galaxy. As such we use explicit language, make sexual references, depict drug use, and regularly encounter heavy violence. Episodes fluctuate between PG-13 and R (to use American movie ratings). Episode show notes contain content warnings for each episode to help you decide if an episode is for you.
Where should I start?
There are a few jumping in points for our show.
At the very beginning are the prologues, these are one-on-one sessions between our Game Master Nick and each one of the players (there are 4 prologues). The audio is a little rough, as we were still learning, but they have some delightful world building.
You can also start at Episode 1. This is where the story truly begins. You might miss a few small details from the prologues, but nothing that should impede your listening enjoyment. The audio is better than the prologues and continues to get better as the show goes on.
Episode 18 is the beginning of a new arc and has a huge amount of exposition that helps set the story. There is also a show recap, a short summary of what has happened previously. Find the Episodes 1-18 Recap here.
Episode 39 is also the beginning of a new arc, although with less exposition on previous storylines. Find the Episodes 19-38 Recap here.
Season 2 starts a new story line. You can find the full season 1 recap episode here.
You might enjoy our podcast if you also enjoy the following media:
Solo (2018)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
Galaxy Quest (1999)
Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey (2020)
Discworld novels by Terry Prachett
The Road to El Dorado (2000)
The Perfect Score (2004)
Snatch (2000)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Firefly (2002-2003), and its movie Serenity (2005)