The Avalon's Dawn - Star Wars Fanfic with a dice-based twist!

[avalonsdawn]

So I accidentally wrote a Star Wars novel.

I've been playing 5 Parsecs From Home — a solo tabletop wargame — and decided to set a campaign during the Galactic Civil War. Just for fun. Just to see what happened.

The dice had other ideas.

Six months later I have a finished novel, a sequel in progress, and a Trandosian philosopher who got shot so many times I started to feel personally responsible.

The Avalon's Dawn is a Rebellion-era fic about a crew of absolute disasters on a broken diplomatic ship trying to get paid. The Empire is in the way. So are the anarchists. So is their own incompetence.

No Jedi. No chosen ones. Just blaster fire, bad decisions, one droid with an attitude and a gun, and the slow costly improbable business of becoming something worth fighting for. It's funny. It's sad. It gets worse before it gets better. The dice made me do it. 📖 https://archiveofourown.org/works/80605901 Posting every Wednesday. Come yell at me about it.

[avalonsdawn]

"Death in war is inevitable. The tools of conflict guarantee it. For all that a blaster is a status symbol, an object of power or confidence, it is a weapon. Its purpose is to inflict burning wounds upon another living creature until that creature’s life ends. With such tools, it is the very condition of war that feeds people into the grinder of conflict, and many will never return from such foreign fields.  War is a monstrosity, a molech that must be fed for the principles of a people to survive. People die so their ideals can live on. So generations yet to come can enjoy their long, peaceful lives, and remember those whose lives ended to give them that.  This is the cost of war.  Zena’s heart could not bear that cost, on that smoking plascrete road, where the bodies lay thick and the smoke heavy."

The Avalon's Dawn — a Rebellion era Star Wars fic written from a solo tabletop campaign. Posting weekly on AO3. Link in pinned post.

[avalonsdawn]

“He must have been hallucinating,” Ri’la said softly. “Death so close, it was already speaking to him. Poor thing. Some kind of pre-death madness.” “I dunno, I think the shade sounded kinda cool.” Leru said, still clearly stoned on endorphins and lust. “Like, imagine if it had a voice like, really deep. With echo. And a cloak made of wind or something.” “That’s so beautiful, darling.”  “Leru,” Zena said, deadpan. “Shut up.” Yundarr put his large scaled hands over his bulging eyes and sank down in his chair.   Meanwhile, the story’s point continued into orbit, desperately far away from being grasped.   “I hate this crew.” Yunudarr muttered. 

The Avalon's Dawn — a Rebellion era Star Wars fic written from a solo tabletop campaign. Posting weekly on AO3. Link in pinned post.

[avalonsdawn]

If your art is so stylised, and your dialogue is so stylised that it barely reflects the source material .... At what point is this not Star Wars? "Buzz off"? Seriously!?

[avalonsdawn]

“And we’re broke, too,” Leru commented. “Again. Jaa said we spent the last take on Myria and everything else. We’re not getting paid any time soon.” Leru leaned forwards, and gestured everyone closer.  “Zena’s out.” He murmured. “Myria’s in a tank. Jaa’s playing nursemaid. So, who’s running the ship?”

The Avalon's Dawn — a Rebellion era Star Wars fic written from a solo tabletop campaign. Posting weekly on AO3. Link in pinned post.

[theblueandpurplebutterfly]

That boy is our last hope.

No. There is another.

[avalonsdawn]

The Dark Empire Comics are seriously, seriously strange - but they are super-interesting at least, and they make Boba Fett not some mysterious bad-ass but a bit of chump, which given how he went down in Return of the Jedi, is a pretty valid reading of the character. Dialogue doesn't win any awards though! The Avalon's Dawn — a Rebellion era Star Wars fic written from a solo tabletop campaign. Posting weekly on AO3. Link in pinned post.

[avalonsdawn]

Somehow, Boba Fett returned. Again. This was the first time, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that it happened ... again. Also, those two are supposed to Han and Leia ... not sure what happened there. The Dark Empire Comics are seriously, seriously strange. The Avalon's Dawn — a Rebellion era Star Wars fic written from a solo tabletop campaign. Posting weekly on AO3. Link in pinned post.

[avalonsdawn]

Chapter 5 is up today! "The crew of the Avalon’s Dawn could perhaps become rebels. But after their battles with the anarchists, they were definitely full-time second-hand arms dealers. It felt a lot like rebellion, except the invoices went through. And if you were really lucky, you got to sell the same product twice - admittedly after it was used against you.   But that’s what the rest of the crew were for.  And given that they were currently berthed in the trash-filled, crime-ridden hell hole city of Lom Kravok, business was brisk."

The Avalon's Dawn — a Rebellion era Star Wars fic written from a solo tabletop campaign. Posting weekly on AO3. Link in pinned post.

[avalonsdawn]

Myria shot another, and then another.  Zena picked one off, and then caught a blaster bolt that knocked her flat on her ass. Stunned, she looked down to see her rifle - that oh so lucky, M-class blaster - wasn’t. In fact, it was in pieces all around her. By the time she’d run back to the Avalon’s Dawn for a new rifle, the fight would be done.   

The Avalon's Dawn — a Rebellion era Star Wars fic written from a solo tabletop campaign. Posting weekly on AO3. Link in pinned post.

[avalonsdawn]

Chapter 4 has dropped! Come join the accidental rebel crew in a fire-fight that wasn't supposed to happen, in a place they didn't plan to fight in, at a time they didn't know. So, fairly normal for the Zena and her crew ...

The Avalon's Dawn — a Rebellion era Star Wars fic written from a solo tabletop campaign. Posting weekly on AO3. Link in pinned post.

[sci-fi-gifs]

The Mandalorian and Grogu dir. Jon Favreau | 2026

[avalonsdawn]

That shot with the x-wings coming out of the sun is just gorgeous.

[holocrone]

ANDOR 1.05 | The Axe Forgets

[avalonsdawn]

But wait! Dark Empire #1 TPB does give us - no joke - a young naked oiled-up Palpatine clone with a lightsaber. Man, this comic is WILD. We lost quite a lot when the legends era ended ... though that's probably for the best!

The Avalon's Dawn — a Rebellion era Star Wars fic written from a solo tabletop campaign. Posting weekly on AO3. Link in pinned post.

[avalonsdawn]

But they were really *wild* about the design of stuff too - I'm not sure they followed much in the design language but there are more interesting ideas in this comic than any of the sequel material. Even the planet crushers are interesting. But these amazing ideas last like, 2 pages - just like this rebel star destroyer being *eaten*! The Avalon's Dawn — a Rebellion era Star Wars fic written from a solo tabletop campaign. Posting weekly on AO3. Link in pinned post.

[avalonsdawn]

"Meanwhile, Zena and Myria were scouting the dead. Myria paused at one of them, an older man who would age no further with his heart and one lung somewhere against the far wall.  The sniper pulled out her datapad, and brought up the holo-transmissions of the local imperial criminal bounties.  Zena's eyes widened. “Why do you have that?” she asked, as Myria scrolled through faces.  “To see if we’re on it.” "

The Avalon's Dawn — a Rebellion era Star Wars fic written from a solo tabletop campaign. Posting weekly on AO3. Link in pinned post.

[avalonsdawn]

The Legends Comic "The Dark Empire" starts like this ... which is basically a reset to the victory in ROTJ. If you think that the 'bleakquel' of the sequel trilogy was a surprise, the legends universe was well ahead of you! The Avalon's Dawn — a Rebellion era Star Wars fic written from a solo tabletop campaign. Posting weekly on AO3. Link in pinned post.