Old Republic/Rise of the Empire Campaign

[Jas378]

I've got the basis for an adventure (and eventually campaign), but I need some help bouncing ideas back and forth. I've got a lot figured out already, but I enjoy good, healthy criticism.

Anywho, the adventure starts off in low orbit on Malastare. The PC's are on a transport ship heading across planet when suddenly... PIRATES! The pirates take numerous goods and whatnot (including credits and anything of significant value off the PC's) and go on their merry way. The PC's pick up here, and are able to go in pursuit of the pirates, either through exploration or a speeder chase (haven't decided which yet). Eventually they reach a small pirate outpost where they can raid and take a ship for their own (it'll have mechanical difficulties aplenty for a bit). On board they find the cargo is filled with explosives.. but I'm saving that mystery for another time. The "reward" will be in the form of a datapad, with certain "information" on an upcoming podrace. *wink wink* *nudge nudge*

Once reaching the podracing event (about 1 or 2 days before), they find that the racer who is "favoured to win" has gone missing. This will hopefully happen after they place some bets. In any case, they're hired by a Hutt with stakes on the race to find him before the day of the race. A series of small encounters will lead them to him... drunk out of his mind in a cantina. This is when a group of thugs/assassins show up to actually take him.

That's about as far as I've gotten with it at the moment, so any ideas are welcomed. I'm thinking of tying the explosives on board the ship to a terrorist group (possibly pre-CIS), and eventually working this campaign into the Clone Wars. But not anytime soon.

Thanks,
Jas

[vanir]

If you don't want a lot of grumbling, upset players I'd avoid opening any campaign by taking equipment off them with a god ruling. It's like inviting them to a game and then starting off by slapping them around and calling them daisy. Especially in a new game the first thing players like to know is the whole exercise isn't a big ego trip for the GM rather than a fun and enjoyable pastime for them.
And anyway the proverbial, "You start in a dungeon chained up with no equipment when an NPC releases you and the adventure begins," is so D&D cliche they're going to start looking for a magic wand and cloak of invisibility.

Try to include the flavour of a particular system when the party is there. So they would be on a Gran transport and attacked by Dug pirates. Gran are politically dominant on the world but are colonists, they've essentially reduced the native Dug to a slave species which is why they've got a bad attitude and fair enough. If there are Hutts on Malastare they've been invited by the Dug to help fund terrorism against the Gran, although Hutts have their own agendas and would see it as an opportunity to create another power base.
The pirates for example are probably in a craft supplied by a Hutt, possibly even led by a professional off world pirate brought in by the Hutt, but nevertheless predominantly Dugs. This also means that raiding the pirates will get the PCs into the cross hairs of the Hutt that supplied them, who might then consider the PCs to owe him the pirates' debt now.
They could be informed later, during the podrace portion of the adventure, by some streetwise scoundrel they might mention the pirate thing to, who might say, "Oh you raided and defeated those pirates, oh dear you're going to have trouble with Gorma the Hutt now, you better watch your back." Something like that, circles within circles is the way to go.

The pirates should be particularly harsh towards Gran on the transport, perhaps even sending a few out the airlock, but mostly leave off worlders alone except to rob any particularly wealthy looking ones. If a PC is some kind of aristocrat, like a retired noble template or something like that, with expensive looking clothing or equipment, then by all means Dug pirates will take him for all he's worth and even inquire if he might be worth something to ransom off world.

That could be an interesting adventure hook, the wealthiest looking PC is kidnapped by the pirates for ransom and the others are left to pursue.

Also keep it mind the pirate leader should be a (very) minor boss to make it a little exciting, I do suggest going with the idea of him being someone the Hutt supplying the pirates with their equipment, has brought him in through his own contacts, so he might be something like a cyborged zabrak pirate template with a little skill and decent personal weapons.

However I'd suggest even pirates aren't completely ignorant and even starting PCs are heroic 18D templates, a well equipped mercinary or bounty hunter PC is going to be fairly intimidating even for pirates (3D+2 STR in a Corellian Powersuit is tough in any language). Or a large alien. They're not going to bite off more than they can chew and are likely to just give that particular PC a wide berth with a "don't interfere with what we're doing and we won't bother with you" philosophy. If they do have trouble with a tough PC like that, they're just going to attack him full force with everything they've got until he's in small pieces, killing the PC before the adventure even starts. It's the smart thing to do. So try to avoid inspiring the PCs to fight the pirates too much, the Dug mostly hate Gran and this is all about attacking Gran transport industry and dominance and making some credits on the side, PCs are just caught in the middle. The pirate leader should be pretty cruel though, feel free to inspire a bit of PC dislike for him. Have him slap some cute human females or something.

It's also a good idea to think of an adventure script as a framework, but to let the players steer the gameplay.

[Jas378]

I was hardly thinking of stripping them of all equipment. Weapons? They get to keep. Armour? They get to keep. Credits and something valuable that my smuggler has to deliver? Not a chance. In any case, they recover all of that once they raid the ship.. well maybe except the smuggler's delivery.

I'll take the Dug-Gran relationship into effect, thanks for that tip.

I'm going to include the "professional off world pirate" as well ('twas along the lines of my original brainstorming). I was going to use this pirate as a kind of "Keyser Soze", a name to connect with several suspicious occurrences (such as the explosives on the ship, etc.) that will all come into play during the Clone Wars.

What I'm really stuck with, is what happens after the encounter with the assassins in the cantina. Yes, my brain has farted.

[vanir]

Well instead of having them hired out of the blue by a Hutt (?) have them forced to repay their debt to the Hutt that was responsible for the pirates, ie. they raided the pirate base and took off with a ship, then found the whole pirate group was set up by a Hutt and as far as the Hutt is concerned the party stole the ship from him. So either pay back the debt by doing services or else the PCs can find themselves working it off in the Kessel spice mines. Have some bounty hunters help them come to the right decision.

Puts an element of danger into the mix when looking for the podracer, if they fail they're going to wind up on Kessel and lose their newly gained starship. If they succeed they keep a starship free and clear. Say the Hutt has credits on the podracer worth much more than the starship.

So that would mean the assassins that come for the drunken podracer are sent by a rival of that Hutt...

[Jas378]

You sir, deserve some blue milk.

In any case, I shall return with the results of said adventure.. and a whole whirlpool of new ideas come Tuesday.

[Jas378]

I'll start with my PC's. One is a 17 year old Zabrak scoundrel who's prone to lying about his age (and a wiseass with everything else), a Gen'Dai soldier (this is the player's first RPG, so we're bearing with him), and a Bothan noble who may or may not have connections with the Bothan SpyNet.

The story opened as planned, save for the fact that the Gen'Dai (Orion) decided it would be a good idea to immediately go into a "hibernation" (I'm using Saga Edition, so don't crucify me here ). When the pirates attack, he ends up losing his ion rifle and all of his credits... only awakening to find the scoundrel (Yemrin) attempting to rob him of his blaster pistol. A standoff ensues that is broken up by the timely intervention of the Bothan (Rayshk). The three proceeded to pursue the pirates in a landspeeder, although Orion (not by any standards a Skywalker) crashed it. After trekking it across desert for a couple hours, they eventually come upon the pirate's starship (a bulky freighter) down in a small valley. Orion, not exactly the brightest crystal on Ilum, walked down the ridge to three pirates standing guard and demanded his things. Thanks to the timely intervention of Yemrin and Rayshk, the three pirates were soon smoking ruins. They then made a roll for Perception (all successful) and heard what sounded like an engine going from down and behind the ship. Splitting up, Rayshk and Orion snuck up the boarding ramp and Yemrin decided to check out the noise (which was a hidden fueling station and small supply dump). Now, when I said Rayshk and Orion "snuck" it really was quite relative, seeing as how Rayshk was successful and Orion fell flat on his face right in front of the pirates (that's what a -1 will get you folks.). Refusing to cooperate with the pirates, Orion was instead knocked out and taken away. Rayshk regrouped with Yemrin (who had also found a datapad which contained a message concerning a delivery of explosives on board the ship), and ambushed the pirates inside, which included the Captain who, thanks to a crit hit by Rayshk, no longer has a head. Afterwards, they did indeed discover the cargo was filled with explosives, and a datapad with info regarding a fixed podrace.

The morning after arriving in Chetzil, Rayshk and Orion were given a rude awakening by a Duro and his two droid bodyguards, who proceeded to escort them (and the already awoken Orion) to the podracing stands where they were "briefed" on their current situation by a then unnamed Hutt (Jabba). The trio, them being them, proceeded to get into an argument ( ) and go their separate ways to find the podracer. Rayshk was able to successfully locate the podracer, and informed Yemrin of his whereabouts. Orion (who doesn't have a comlink), was able to notice them enter the cantina where the podracer was drinking away his sorrows (and liver). It was at this point, that I overestimated my characters. Blasting through thugs and pirates had been a breeze for them, so I had decided to throw an assassin their way. The result killing off Rayshk (I kept him alive with a destiny point and a little GM magic), injuring Orion, and Yemrin escaping with the podracer. Orion managed to escape the assassin as well, and the two remaining PC's (Rayshk was captured by the assassin and his cohorts) were taken to Jabba where they were told they were free to go... with no further word on their missing friend. After being escorted out of the track, they were then greeted by the assassin, who (saying his contract with his former employe) had been fulfilled, would be willing to aid them in finding their friend... for a price. And that's where I left off.

Thoughts? Comments? Etc.?

[Jas378]

So, I spent a weekend up at a friend's cottage, and upon noticing my RPG books he and his brother decided they wanted in on the fun. I went through a couple adventures with them, threading their story into the other one I'm running.

I've got a couple adventures to use for now, and an idea for what I want to use as a "finale" (a hostile takeover of the Senate building), but I have no clue what to put in the middle... help?

Just a note, my new PC's are a Human Jedi padawan and a Aleena scoundrel who has an outstanding debt to a crime lord on Coruscant.

[Guardian_A]

When looking at short side stories, one of the first things I try to do is look at the characters involved and try to think of some stories that can evolve around something about that character (Whether it be their habbits, history, friends, or something else.) My first thought would be to give the group a little run in with the crime lord you mentioned, . . . A couple of ideas (Associated with the scoundrel): 1. The crime lord puts a bounty on the Aleena scoundrel's head. The bounty is big enough to draw a LOT of attention from every bounty hunter in the system, along with a lot of wanabees. 2. The crime lord contacts the Aleena scoundrel, offering to cancel the debt in exchange for a favor, . . . 3. An old friend is in some kind of trouble, and asks the Aleena scoundrel for help.

[Jas378]

You mind if I throw some other stuff your way in terms of story Guardian? Because I could go on for a bit..

[Jas378]

I'm going to anyways. <.<

Since the majority of my PC's are leaning towards the more "criminal elements" of the galaxy, I was going to have a thread dealing with a few of them rising through the ranks of Black Sun... except one of them (due to an earlier capture and interrogation) is a mole for some new enforcement agency. Thoughts and ideas?

[Guardian_A]

[Guardian_A]

[Jas378]

I threw on thing up there. ^ Overall what I want for this, is to be a chronicle of these character's lives, a regular Space Epic. I'm starting now in the Old Republic Era, and ending it at about 8th level when the PC's have to save the Chancellor and defeat a terrorist organization that begins to plague the Core Worlds near the end of this campaign. Afterwards, we move into the Clone Wars (no clue what the major arc will be there), and then into the Dark Times and the Galactic Civil War. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, but I already have a vague image of the Jedi's final showdown.. with Vader himself.

But anyways, this campaign. I had Skism (the Aleena scoundrel), Nebris (the Jedi), and his master (Kalem) get captured by Saboath Squadron at the end of their attempt of pursuing a lead on a 3 shipments of explosives that they witnessed fleeing a factory. Oh wait, didn't the other PC's take a ship that had a load of explosives on it? Heh.

Also, a little problem with a PC. At the end of the first session, one PC took it upon himself to buy equipment, which included a set of stormtrooper armour (he just took the book..). Anyways, I try to talk to him about it, saying I'll give him back the credits and he can purchase another set of armour, but he makes a huge fuss about it. *shoots self*

[Jas378]

[Crell Damar]