Star Wars and Indiana Jones

[Bren]

This came up on the Prison Break thread where Whill mentioned he had done an escape from Kessel partly based on the mine scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Starwars and Indiana Jones - partly because the two originally came out around the same time period, partly because of the Lucas/Spielberg connection, partly because of the pulp serial tone, and muchly because Harrison Ford starred in both - these two franchises have always seemed similar to me.

So here is the question - have you done adventures inspired by Indiana Jones?

Not surpisingly, my answer is YES. I ran a scenario called Ancient Steel, that was a bit of a mix of Raiders and the Last Crusade. The PCs were after the Shaa’Sat’Skar a lost 5000 year old sword that had belonged to Arl'Toral, the heir of Toral, the first King of Coyn.

Legends say that Arl’Toral’Tangak’Skass Im’Tra’Coyn [Arl Toral Tangak-Heart Crown Prince of Coyn] fell in battle on a distant planet. He and his bodyguard of 300 were defending a pass against a huge army. For three days and nights they held the pass despite overwhelming odds. Finally on the third night a traitor from the planet led the invaders through a side pass so that they could outflank the Prince and his guards. The next morning, the Prince awoke to find his position surrounded by the enemy. Refusing to surrender or succumb to treachery, he and his guard fought to the last. Finally, Arl’Toral fell at the last amidst a mound of the enemy.

There were four factions all trying to get the sword:
(1) The PCs work for the Rebel Alliance. The Alliance wants the sword to keep the Imperials from getting the sword and the propaganda value it represents.
(2) The Parrs’Terek’Mar want the Shaa’Sat’Skar to keep it from the Imperials and to strengthen the Conservative faction of clans on Coyn. These guys are like the guys in the red fezes in the Last Crusade.
(3) The na’raisa are after the Shaa’Sat’Skar because they have been hired by Cromska Nel’Vatek to acquire the Shaa’Sat’Skarfor Nel’Vatek. With the Shaa’Sat’Skar Cromska could make his son the next En’Tra’Sol (High King) of Coyn. These guys are Coynite outlaws (think Yakuza) working for an pro-Imperial, evil Coynite Clan chief.
(4) Coalition for Progress—Science archaeologists want to acquire the Shaa’Sat’Skar to control and strengthen the pro-Imperial faction of clans. They are aided by their allies in clan Zar’Thak. The Coalition is sponsored by COMPNOR. The dig site will have COMPNOR guards in addition to the Coynites present. These are like the Nazis and their scientific stooges in Raiders or Last Crusade.

The players had to acquire the Disk of D’NDAR, translate the glyphs on the Disk, and discover the map hidden in the picture on the Disk which shows the location of the hidden tomb. They separately had to find the right planet where the cemetary was located to use their map). The Disk is analogous to the headpiece of Ra in Raiders.

Once they found the tomb they bad guys steal the sword and the PCs end up sealed in by the bad guys. Kind of a cross between Egypt in Raiders or the Tomb under Venice in Last Crusade.

The PCs teamed up with the Parrs'Terek'Marr and I believe both the evil groups sort of teamed up, while each planned to cheat the other. Fortunately the good guys won. Completing step one in my master plan to entice one of the PCs to start a Civil War on Coyn.

[garhkal]

Nice.. I am surprised there wasn't a 5th faction.. say rightful heirs OF that coyn who wanted it.. Or maybe even a 6th.. a reclusive artifact collector..
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[CRMcNeill]

I've always felt that an Indiana Jones style campaign would be a perfect "crossover" for the SWU (Even posted a thread about it a while back)

http://www.rancorpit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3299&highlight=
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[Bren]

[Whill]

Thanks again for sharing, Bren. The campaign I'm planning now is very much influenced by IJ. It will involve searching for ancient treasures and uncovering clues to the mystery of the sudden dissappearance of an entire species in a remote group of star systems. On the surface it starts out as just a smuggler/mercenary campaign but it gets deeper into the mystery as it goes along and the PCs get involved with various factions in a coming armageddon from an ancient prophecy. I was hoping that one of the PCs could even be a Young Indiana Jones type of character who has to take a job being a crew on the ship to pay his way through graduate school. And part of the climax of the campaign will likely involve one of the more cynical characters being put in a situation where he has to take a leap from the lion's head. 8)
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[Bren]

[Whill]

Those are great ideas!

My original setting for the campaign ("The Whills Nebula") is one big archeaological region. There are 6 major systems and 2 or 3 of those have mutliple inhabited worlds. There are a few indiginous species but many more from the galaxy at large (Humans are a minority). The modern colonies (now a loose union of system-states) only go back a couple hundred years, but the ruins of the ancient vanished species (the Moryatui) go back thousands. Part of the mystery is that the Moryatui somehow had a Nebula-wide civillation with no evidence of any technology more advanced than ancient Earth. This species didn't interact with the other indiginous species of the region (none of which had intersteller travel at the time). But the species' homeworld has not been discovered so there are rumors of an entire planet hidden somewhere in the Nebula, possibly with the Moryatui still alive. And there is also evidence of an even older extremely advanced species that may have created super-weapons that were discovered by a couple of the indiginous species who destroyed their world, so there are rumors of ancient components to the super-weapons are hidden in the Nebula. And of course there are the possible existance of the Whills themselves, mythological beings worshipped as gods by the Moryatui but also by modern religions in the Nebula. Naturally there are all sorts of archeaologists, miners, prospectors, treasure hunters, pilgrims, etc. all over the Nebula. There is even one artificial world/space station that is almost entirely made up of a university famous for its archeaology department, but other universities across the galaxy also have archeaology branches in the Whills Nebula. There's just so much field work available - dig sites on every world.

An archeaological graduate student with no family support has to pay his way through school somehow, and there just happens to also be a lot of free trading, drop-point cargo delivery and smuggling ships in the region that that need crew. I envision the student would spend time in class, etc. in between adventures, and there's always time to study in hyperspace too. Sometimes the student may just be going along for the money, sometimes the ship's destination will be transportation for him, and sometimes the student may arrange with a patron for the ship's services to be hired for archeaological expditions. There's just all sorts of possiblities for adventure in the Whills Nebula! Besides the archeaological student PC, the other two key character types for the campaign are a non-Jedi Force-sensitive mystic and a cynical captain/pilot.
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[Bren]

Sounds great. And the ship captain could look like Han Solo (or maybe Humprhey Bogart).

[Dustflier]

+1 for Bogart, the greatest male star in the history of American cinema.

"Of all the lum joints in all the planets in all the galaxy, she walks into mine."
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