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dadofett
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Joined: 28 Jun 2011
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Location: North Carolina, USA
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 Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 11:47 pm Post subject: Campaign Idea: Jedi Academy |
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My players pulled a fast one on me! I was all set to run a Dark Times campaign...mapping out all the timeline, important npc encounters, major story arcs, etc, etc....
Then when I starting asking them about their character ideas, every single one wanted to have Jedi powers! I could get away with one, maybe two Jedi in the bunch as under-cover survivors of the Purge...but not a whole group of Jedi marching around.
Oh well, I think I have a good alternative in setting the campaign at the end of the New Republic era: after Empire Reborn and prior to Yuuzhan Vong War....about 18 to 25 ABY.
Here, because of the much more "free form" nature of the New Jedi Order, the players can basically be the characters they would normally want to be (ie soldier, privateer, bounty hunter, etc) and then tack Jedi powers on top.
As sort of the third generation of students at the Jedi Academy, each will be "discovered" by Luke or his agents as Force-sensitives, invited to the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4, given a master, put in a clan (ie, all the characters will be put in the same clan, thus they have to get to know each other and work together) and given various missions and training.
What's cool about this is I get a "home base" for the characters for free, and an easy hook to send them on any kind of find/protect/rescue mission I can come up with...Master Skywalker just calls them in and sends them on their way.
Also, they'll be plenty of opportunities for them to train and grow in Force powers, but without all those stodgy old Jedi Order rules. Here, they can express their individuality while getting to use cool force powers, lightsabers, and blasters. There's a ton of smaller published stories during this time that I can tie into (Young Jedi Knight stuff) and plenty of enemies (Disciples of Ragnos, Shadow Academy, etc) not to mention running into all the heroes from the first three movies!
Thats the idea so far....thoughts, suggestions?
Other than the The Jedi Academy Sourcebook, what other sources are good? Actually TJAS focuses on the early days of the Academy, where as I'm more interested in what happens right after that. Wookieepedia has been a great source, especially here and here, but I am open to any and all adventures, fan-made source books, etc that will help.
Thanks! |
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garhkal
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Joined: 17 Jul 2005
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:42 pm Post subject: |
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As a side thought, why not keep it during the purge and where their powers are natural gifts of their family.. not jedi learned powers..
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dadofett
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Joined: 28 Jun 2011
Posts: 74
Location: North Carolina, USA
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| Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 10:32 am Post subject: |
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So far the idea is working out....
Working through character generation with players and so far we have:
1. Force-sensitive teenage Wookie techie/warrior: basically will fill the spot Lowbacca has in canon, but without the plant knowledge. Will be the heavy-lifter of the group. Gonna just plain copy the M-TD idea 'cause it's brilliant. Player will make wookie sounds, then translate in normal voice. Motivation is finding the last pockets of Wookie slaves throughout galaxy and (hopefully) finding his parents in the process. Will he be able to overcome his feelings of revenge and control his rage to become a Jedi?
2. Force-sensitive Mandalorian mercanary: This one was a little hard to swing. Did my research and we're saying he is from one of the "Shadow Clans" that didn't choose a side in The Mandalorian Civil War (True Mandalorians vs. Death Watch) and didn't become pacifists like main "New Mandalorian" line. His is actually the descendant of the lone survivor of the Mandalorian Knight experiment. Scout and grizzled veteran of the group. Can he become the father of a new Jedi-inspired Mandalorian Knight order? Can't wait for the session when he comes face-to-face with Boba!
3. Force-sensitive Kel Dorian pilot: Pilot and scholarly advisor of the group. Possibly from the Koon family line, possibly with ties to Baran Do. Still work to do on this one....
4. Force-sensitive Iron Knight: Juggernaut war droid body with living Shard inside named Stygium, "Styg" for short. As name suggests, he has some sort of Force cloaking power (yet to be worked out). Really interested to see how the player plays the duality of actually being a Shard, but having a physical droid body....plenty of story arcs there. |
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Bren
Vice Admiral
Joined: 19 Aug 2010
Posts: 3868
Location: Maryland, USA
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| Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 10:48 am Post subject: |
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| dadofett wrote: | | Working through character generation with players... |
Will they all be starting characters, i.e. 18D stats 7D skills? |
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dadofett
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Joined: 28 Jun 2011
Posts: 74
Location: North Carolina, USA
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| Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:04 am Post subject: |
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| Bren wrote: | | dadofett wrote: | | Working through character generation with players... |
Will they all be starting characters, i.e. 18D stats 7D skills? |
Right now the thought is to let them generate a normal starting character using the standard build numbers, but tack on 2D - 5D Force skills and associated powers to represent their un-trained Force abilities (ie, what the New Jedi Academy saw in them that warranted their invite) I'll make the players come up with compelling reasons for why/how they have what they start with....
Too powerful? |
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Bren
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Joined: 19 Aug 2010
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Location: Maryland, USA
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| Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:42 am Post subject: |
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| dadofett wrote: | | Bren wrote: | | dadofett wrote: | | Working through character generation with players... |
Will they all be starting characters, i.e. 18D stats 7D skills? |
Right now the thought is to let them generate a normal starting character using the standard build numbers, but tack on 2D - 5D Force skills and associated powers to represent their un-trained Force abilities (ie, what the New Jedi Academy saw in them that warranted their invite) I'll make the players come up with compelling reasons for why/how they have what they start with....
Too powerful? |
Possibly. Depends on what you want them to be able to do. In play we found Jedi with Force skills in the 2D range were pretty weak. In the 4D range they were playable, but not too powerful. But once you get above 5D they quickly become almost unstoppable. The combination of Combat Sense and Lightsaber Combat can make any Jedi with control and sense of 5D+ a whirling death machine.
We actually eliminated Combat Sense as a power and significantly changed the Lightsaber Combat power so that it was useful at 4D and below, but made it much less powerful at 5D and above. If you are interested, the variant power is described here: http://www.rancorpit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3512
You may (or may not) find the in progress modifications to Lightsaber Dueling of interest. http://www.rancorpit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3505 It’s designed to allow lightsaber combat to continue for several rounds rather than ending in a single round or so. That may be helpful if you are running an all Jedi campaign.
Personally, I think it was a huge amount of fun to grow into the Jedi powers. That way the players get the fun of learning a whole bunch of new skills and growing in power rather than starting out already powerful. So I wouldn't be in a big hurry to have a lot of force skill and powers at the beginning. And the way the rules are written there seems to be a tipping point for Jedi once they are at 6D or 7D in lightsaber and around 5D in force skills or so where they become increasingly more powerful. Our goal in play was for Jedi to work up towards the tipping point, to modify rules to extend the range around the tipping point, and then to play around (but not over) the tipping point. |
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Guardian_A
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Joined: 24 May 2011
Posts: 1654
Location: South Dakota, USA
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| Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 12:07 pm Post subject: |
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I had a Dark Age campaign not too long ago that dealt with a small group of padawans and a single master. Due to the Empire's stance on force sensitives, the master focused much of his training on how to avoid detection. After the master died, the characters tried to turn the Corellean Corvette that they were making use of into a moble accademy. Since one of the characters was a bothan, I used that as an excuse to tie the group to the Bothan Spynet. We'll put it this way, when Mon Mothma said "Many Bothans died to bring us this information," during Return of the Jedi, she failed to mention that a small group of jedi died with them. The players went into the final session knowing that many, if not all of their character would be dieing before the end of the night. The characters went out as heros and had the satisfaction of knowing they had just played a pivotal event in the Star Wars universe. Everyone was really happy with the end result.
The Jedi Academy idea is a really good one, it gives them the ability to learn more about the force, while giving yourself a greater digree of control over the direction of the story.
As for starting force powers. When I have force users, I usually give them the option of taking up to 2D worth of force abilities directly from the skill dice pool. For the first part of the campaign your characters can persue quests that will further their training. Then once your players characters are where you want them, you can throw them into the main story arc.
Good luck with your story. |
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dadofett
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Joined: 28 Jun 2011
Posts: 74
Location: North Carolina, USA
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| Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 2:40 pm Post subject: |
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| Bren wrote: |
We actually eliminated Combat Sense as a power and significantly changed the Lightsaber Combat power so that it was useful at 4D and below, but made it much less powerful at 5D and above. If you are interested, the variant power is described here: http://www.rancorpit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3512
You may (or may not) find the in progress modifications to Lightsaber Dueling of interest. http://www.rancorpit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3505 It’s designed to allow lightsaber combat to continue for several rounds rather than ending in a single round or so. That may be helpful if you are running an all Jedi campaign.
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Thanks for the info... I've been following those threads from a a distance. The two mods fit together nicely?
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Personally, I think it was a huge amount of fun to grow into the Jedi powers. That way the players get the fun of learning a whole bunch of new skills and growing in power rather than starting out already powerful. So I wouldn't be in a big hurry to have a lot of force skill and powers at the beginning. And the way the rules are written there seems to be a tipping point for Jedi once they are at 6D or 7D in lightsaber and around 5D in force skills or so where they become increasingly more powerful. Our goal in play was for Jedi to work up towards the tipping point, to modify rules to extend the range around the tipping point, and then to play around (but not over) the tipping point. |
That's exactly what I'm looking for.... so in addition to the two threads above dealing with lightsaber rules, what other rules mods did you do to help with staying shy of the tipping point? |
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ZzaphodD
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Joined: 28 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 2:50 pm Post subject: |
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In that situation Id set it at the beginning of the purge. The PCs being a group of young Jedis banding together for protection.... Perhaps the characters have been out of touch and dont really grasp the full horror of their situation. The characters are looking for other Jedis and will find that all clues lead to a dead Jedi with the rumour of someone with a black helmet being the killer... 
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Bren
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| Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 5:03 pm Post subject: |
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| dadofett wrote: | | Thanks for the info... I've been following those threads from a a distance. The two mods fit together nicely? |
We have used a version of the modified lightsaber combat power for years with two different Jedi PCs. It works well for us. The lightsaber dueling variant is a very new idea. I intend it to work together with the lightsaber combat power variant. I think they should work together, but it has not been play tested. The others who comment on the LS dueling variant don't use my LS Combat power modification though some use variants of their own. I think the LS dueling variant should work independently of modifying the power, but you may need to adjust the intervals in the steps. For example Jedi with LS skill and Force skills in the 6D and up range probably need larger intervals than the 4pts I am considering - probably more like the difficulty scale or an even larger interval.
| Quote: | | That's exactly what I'm looking for.... so in addition to the two threads above dealing with lightsaber rules, what other rules mods did you do to help with staying shy of the tipping point? |
We tend to spend a lot of CPs on non-Force skills to make the Jedi more well rounded. I think my Jedi PC probably spent around 60-70% of his CPs on non-Jedi skills. Also, according to the RAW, starting force users have lower stats than regular PCs, so I also spent a bunch of CPs to raise PER from my PCs lowly 2D all the way up to 2D+2. 
Generally the decision to raise a force skill was based on not just having the CPs but also, (A) had there been activities in the current adventure to learn something new about the Force, (B) had there been an opportunity to train either in the most recent adventure(s) or between adventures, (C) does it seem right from a character development standpoint i.e. is it right for the character, (D) does that development help progress the overall campaign or at least not detract from the overall campaign, and (E) will this increase in force powers enhance, maintain, or detract form the overall game balance with the other characters. This tends to be a discussion and collaborative decision, not just one player saying - "hey I have the CPs I want to raise my PCs Alter skill." It helps if the playes understand that there is a range in which Jedi PCs are fun to play and easy to GM. From our experience, the range actually seems to work as follows:
Stage ..................... Playing ................................ GMing
<3D ....................... challenging/frustrating .......... easy to run as long as you don't break the PCs
3D-4D .................... fun ...................................... easy to run
4D-6D .................... fun / powerful ...................... a bit challenging to run, but not much worry of breaking the PC
7D+ ........................ fun but may lack challenge.... hard to run and hard to design good, but not overwhelming challenges
We haven't really run any Jedi at the high level. The most recent modification of my LS Combat rules is basically designed to extend the playable range up to around 6D-8D.
YMMV. |
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garhkal
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Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 14168
Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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| dadofett wrote: | | Bren wrote: | | dadofett wrote: | | Working through character generation with players... |
Will they all be starting characters, i.e. 18D stats 7D skills? |
Right now the thought is to let them generate a normal starting character using the standard build numbers, but tack on 2D - 5D Force skills and associated powers to represent their un-trained Force abilities (ie, what the New Jedi Academy saw in them that warranted their invite) I'll make the players come up with compelling reasons for why/how they have what they start with....
Too powerful? |
IMO yes.. 2-5D bonus attribues for force skills starting out gives them a massive boost over any other characters.
As to what you currently have,
Wookie - no real issue here
Mandalore... I thought they were out of it until the NJO..
Shard-iron knight.. IMO this is like trying to get 2 effective pcs in 1.. the shard AND the droid.
Pilot.. no real issues.
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Law
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Joined: 15 Jul 2011
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Location: Baltimore, Maryland
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| Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 1:15 am Post subject: |
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I'm running our group through a dark times campaign with 3 minor jedi. None started with force skills (though we were initially using saga) and I basically justified the odds of them coming together as The Will of the Force.
They are a young noble of a wealthy crime family, combat medic, and a tis'shar (sp?) tech/first mate accompanied by, or accompanying as the case may be, a smuggler/scoundrel and twi'lek gunslinger. We decided only one of them knew much of anything about the force and she was searching for a teacher. First they ran into a mystic that gave them some basic training and then I used the Adalric Brandl npc from the Adv Journals to give them some Jedi training. I hinted about his whereabouts, let them find him, he trained them in some basic skills, informed the emperor he had some new recruits, and let them make a mad dash to escape from the lesser dark jedi old prune face sent to collect them.
The big thing is they are marked and hunted. The disturbances in the force thread has some good ideas on discouraging a lot of overt force use. Based on past actions I really only see the tis'shar surviving because he is basically only interested in the jedi stuff as a little bag of tricks to use on the side. And he is a straight-up coward. He took some lightsaber training because he would rather know how to use it and not need it.
We are about 4 or 5 years prior to ANH and I figure that is plenty of time to find one of the last surviving legitimate jedi, train them up, and then kill the master off so that everything seems to jive with what was told in episode 4. I am disregarding most of the prequels. I prefer the backstory everyone had to conjure up on there own from the original movies because everything prior was only hinted at. |
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schnarre
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Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 333
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| Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 4:19 pm Post subject: |
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...For a group where every PC wanted to be a "Jedi" in some form or other, the Jedi Academy accommodates it without too much fuss. If it were me, I would have put it in the Tales of the Jedi era. Sounds like an interesting group though!
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