New Star Wars Campaign Starting Up... Should I Share?

[DASHER]

Okay, so after about 20 years away from running Star Wars, I am finally fired up with an idea to start a new campaign.
I couldn't really think of what I wanted to do until I started thinking back to what "killed" my old campaign - a really rotten attitude on the part of one of the players who decided to "take control of the experiment" as it were. I let him, but became so disillusioned by the whininess of the act that I lost interest in continuing the game, since he was best friend of my and my wife's best friends and they wouldn't play without him and he hated space combat and was always a douche when he wasn't the center of attention.
Issues, issues, issues all around.
But two things happened in the intervening years.
First, what he did, as disruptive and petty as it was all those years ago, I now realize was the BEST thing that could happen to a Star Wars Roleplaying campaign; it offered the opportunity for a major paradigm shift in the core game concept, if I was willing to do the work of running with a whole new "track" for a campaign set after "A New Hope" and before "The Empire Strikes Back". (I was too ticked off then, but I'm ready to do it now.)
Second, he died. Okay, maybe that's petty on my part, but hey, while there's relief that I don't have to put up with his (really terrible) attitude any more, there is also the disppointment that I don't get to rub his nose in the mess he made with his in-game actions, and which will provide my game group - new and old - with what I think will be one of the best things I've ever run.
So, win some, lose some.
Anyway, I'll post details here every couple of weeks, starting with the backstory, if anyone is interested. If this all sounds too self-serving and nasty, let me know and I won't bring it up again. I'm not going to dwell on the payback (much), except to say that George Herbert was right...
"Living well is the best revenge."
DASHER
_________________
"None of us is as smart as we'd like to think we are; more important, nobody else is as stupid as we'd like to believe they are."

[Fallon Kell]

[Bren]

[Guardian_A]

Boy, there must have been some pretty bad blood between you, . . . I can honstly say that I've never had a player at my table that I would wish ill of. Living well may be the best revenge, but some victories should be enjoyed privately. But thats all I'm going to say about that. After all, whatever problems you had was between you and your player/friend-of-a-friend and we dont know the whole story, . . .

To be honest, I'd love to hear about both your original story and your upcoming story. I always enjoy hearing about other peoples games/adventures. Sometimes I can glean adventure ideas, sometimes I learn something from seeing how someone else does things that I can adopt (Or pointedly avoid) in my own games. Other times, I just enjoy the stories.

You said it would take place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes back? What kind of story will you be running? A group of Rebels on a mission? Some independant faction? Some other group? How is it going to fit into the lore of the movies? Will it have strong ties to what is going on in the movies? Or will it have a more subtle place in the Star Wars universe? Will the story make reference to the original campaign that you ran? Or will the story be completely independant of it?

[DASHER]

Oh, goodness no, I don't have any callousness or glee at his death. It was a long time ago and he was genuinely mourned and is still missed.
But death, per se, does not elevate a person to sainthood, nor does dying sponge away all one's sins or elevate one's character above the truth of one's acts in life.
How we behave in life remains our legacy; the hurts we inflict on others cannot be amended if we are taken before we can make them right, so it's always best to behave well, lest someone else get the last word.
And while it is true that this individual's calculated behavior in the game group was so overwhelmingly negative that only now, years later, have any of the members had any desire to renew playing anything with one another on anything like a regular basis, what that says about the person is best left to the imagination.
Moving on, then:
One of the complaints my players had was that often I would create situations with extremely powerful elements which, given the overt restrictions of the RPG fitting into the canon of the films, meant that the players would be involved in the acquisition of items that could seriously affect the course of the rebellion, but have to be denied using them because they "knew" what was going to happen. At the time I didn't have a good response to this except to ramp down the importance of their missions.
The RPG rules fostered this sort of voluntary hamstringing on the part of the GMs, with their admonition that "no player was ever going to be as good as Luke Skywalker or Han Solo". But in the words of George Lucas, "Star Wars" was envisioned to make "every boy a Luke, every girl a Leia". And my players' response - and mine when I got to play - to being told they could never be as good as Luke or Han or the Emperor was "Then why are we bothering to play?"
What happened all those years ago was this: I had put together a First Contact story arc that would have been worth three, maybe four missions, with a payoff of a new kind of Hyperspace drive for the Alliance. I knew the players were tired of space combat and overt shoot-em-ups, so this was to be my concession to how they wanted to play for a change: A roleplaying-heavy mini-campaign, with strong diplomatic activities as well as counter-espionage skills as they tried to subvert and sabotage the Imperial Diplomatic Corps and prevent the Empire from making a favorable first impression on the alien diplomats.
I wanted a bizarre hook for the aliens, so I based them on Brian Aldiss' Utods from "The Dark Light Years", and made them peerless masters of genetic and biological engineering techniques, while keeping all of their unsavory characteristics from Aldiss' novel for the hurdles such characteristics would provide in terms of roleplaying the diplomatic aspects of the campaign.
So, at the extent of explored space, the aliens have landed with a diplomatic vessel accompanied by a massive transport. The Empire and the Alliance have both dispatched the fastest vessels they had to get there as quickly as possible and be the first to make initial contact. The Alliance wants to warn the aliens about the Empire, the Empire wants to be sure the aliens are not going to be gulled by the Alliance. Each side has their propaganda apparatus spun up to maximum pitch.
The Empire had established a landing zone and had a brief first meeting by holocommunicator with the alien dignitaries who refused to leave their vessel until the surface of the meeting world had been "sanctified"; they referred to the accompanying transport vessel as the means of performing this sanctification as part of a ritual the Utods rigidly adhered to before ever setting foot on another world.
The players arrived in their own ship - actually the ship of the aforementioned player who hated space combat - and, seeing one Imperial vessel and two alien ships on the ground, he took the initiative to attack and destroy the largest vessel without bothering to run sensor scans to see if it was crewed or even armed. It did have crew, but no weapons. He then proceeded to cripple the smaller Imperial and Utod ships on the ground, then retired to land behind a nearby range of hills and monitor communications.
The rest of the players were dismayed, but it was his ship, his decision, and he was very happy to pronounce that "Now we can play and not worry about any space combat crap."
Alas, there was never going to be any space combat, but having assumed the worst, the situation he created was far more terrible.
The Utods, horrified by the unprovoked attack on their sanctification ship, quite reasonably demanded an explanation from the Imperial delegation as to what kind of savage creatures roamed free in this galaxy. The Imperial diplomats, being good at their jobs, regretfully informed the Utods that this was the sort of savagery they were being subjected to on a daily basis by the terrorist insurgents calling themselves "The Alliance to Restore the Republic". Holorecordings of the fate of the first Death Star from Darth Vader's own TIE Fighter only reinforced the Utods' revulsion for the "rebels'" lust for wanton destruction and indiscriminate murder.
The Alliance scrambled to perform some sort of damage control that would mollify the Utods, to no avail.
In the first place, the Empire carefully restricted the Utods' access to any information but that which the Empire wanted them to have, and in the second, even the most covert attempts by the Alliance to make contact with the Utods was terrifying to the aliens, who could only anticipate Alliance intentions by the previous actions of Alliance personnel, chief among whom was the caption of the ship that had made a deliberate and unprovoked attack on and slaughtered many of the staff of a peaceful diplomatic mission.
The end result was that the Empire received the Hyperspace Drive from the grateful Utods in exchange for a colony world protected by the Imperial Navy from the potential ravages of the "rebels", leading the Alliance to disavow the player characters, leaving them with no support, no sanction and nowhere to go but out on their own.
One player declared his character would defect to the Empire and left the game, two said their characters would return to bounty hunting and played a few more adventures, and one just quit playing altogether.
As for the provocateur, he refused (furiously and very nearly violently) to accept the consequences of his actions and declared he would never play Star Wars again. He wouldn't even provide an "end story" for his character, but that was perhaps to be expected.
In real terms, that was about 25 years ago. In game terms, those events happened within the last six months.
It is possible that one or two of the original characters may be involved in the new campaign.
The Galaxy is at the place in the timeline after "A New Hope", but before "The Empire Strikes Back".
The Empire is in disarray from the loss of the Death Star, but is regrouping and reorganizing its military. The details, and even the nature, of the Utods' advanced Hyperspace Drive is only beginning to be explained to Imperial scientists, and it will be some time before it can be put to any practical use, if at all, but the Utods are a source of tremendous scientific information in the fields of biology and genetics, and some of their studies have warranted the summoning of their greatest scientists into the presence of the Emperor himself, though the specific subject of his interest is not known.
The Alliance is using this brief respite to establish safe worlds, seek out lost colonies and unknown civilizations as allies, open new hyperspace routes and generally strengthen its infrastructure and power base for the long struggle to restore freedom to the galaxy.
This, then, is "The Story So Far..."

DASHER
_________________
"None of us is as smart as we'd like to think we are; more important, nobody else is as stupid as we'd like to believe they are."

[Guardian_A]

Thank you for the perspective, it casts things in a conciderably less cynical light.

Sounds like you had a really interesting campaign running, even if some elements sound a little overpowered (But those overpowered elements sound like they could be easily put in check. For example: The overpowered hyperdrives could be less than they seem. Either they need the race that makes them to get them to work properly, the race has some trick to make them seem more efficient than they really are, or even make the ruel source so rare and expensive that it would NEVER be practical to make use of the drive.)

I like the idea behind your original campaign, it has some really great implications for the galaxy at large.

So, what all has happened between the two story arcs? And where will the new story be picking up? You said that the game will include some of the same players, will it also include some of the same player characters? Or will the players be starting fresh with new characters who know little to nothing about the current situation?

Looking forward to hearing more!

PS: Spacing between paragraphs would make things quite a bit easier to read.

[DASHER]

[Guardian_A]

Yeah, creating characters in a group setting can be a lot of fun. And it usually results in a group of characters who have strengths that compliment each other, allowing them to work better as a unit.

It might work better to create a group of fresh new characters instead of trying to recreate the old ones. For starters, it would allow all of the characters to learn about the current "situation" together.

I know what you mean about the Star Wars universe expanding over the last couple of decades. My original Star Wars campaign takes place at about the time the Vong war would have been in full swing. There had been relative peace since the Thrawn offensive where the New Republic had grown complacent and the Empire had secretly invested large summs of credits into building a secret fleet, including the construction of new superweapons. The New Republic was spending most of its time trying to salvage anything in the Empire's relentless advance. In the meantime, Luke's fledgling Jedi Order is trying to both help the New Republic in the war it was rapidly loosing, and trying to uncover the source of the increasing rumors of Sith activity. In the end, the characters discovered that the Sith were secretly manipulating the highest levels of the Empire's government. The characters were able to both reveal and destroy the Sith in question while setting the stage for resumed peace between the New Republic and Empire. The campaign ended with the characters setting in a cantina, watching the holonews brodcast declaring that a peace agreement had been reached between the New Republic and Empire while the characters wondered amongst themselves where such a powerful Sith had come from, and whether or not there were others like him, . . .

Midichlorians are one of those things that dont bother me one way or another. Some of my players have liked the idea, others havent. I've simply avoided addressing the issue on any serious level during my games. While midiclorians exist in my setting, they are every bit as enegmatic as the Force itself.

Another way to deal with the hyperdrive issue is to make it so that everything works exactly as advertised, however, anyone (Other than the Utod) will get very sick or even die with prolonged exposure to its use.

[DASHER]

Okay, so... here's the crawl:

STAR WARS

Episode II

BRIGHT DAWN

The flames of rebellion
blaze across the galaxy.

With the destruction of the
Death Star, and the elimination
of the powerful Grand Moff Tarkin,
the Galactic Empire has been thrown
into disarray.

But the respite will be brief; DARTH VADER
has been given command of all Imperial forces
and ordered to personally hunt down and crush the
rebellion.

Meanwhile, the Alliance grows in strength, seeking allies
and safe worlds in the forgotten corners of the Empire, where
it can build the vast armies of liberation which are the only hope
of restoring freedom to the galaxy....

The Bright Dawn Campaign

Introduction

The player characters have been assigned to a long-term mission aboard the Alliance Dreadnought Bright Dawn. If any of the players have their own ship, it will travel in escort with the Bright Dawn, or in the capital ship’s hangars.

The crew complement of a Dreadnought-class vessel is approximately 16,000, but the Bright Dawn is able to operate with only 2,500 personnel due to extensive automation of its systems. While the normal troop compliment is 5,000 soldiers, the Bright Dawn carries a greatly reduced ground force contingent of only 500 combat effectives. Discovering the reasons for the sharply-reduced numbers of personnel is intended to be part of the experience of the campaign and should not be told to the players outright, even those who will be filling command positions on the ship.

The players will receive activation orders welcoming them to the Bright Dawn, which is described as “a noble ship with a long and distinguished history in service of the Galactic Republic”. This description is accurate, if not entirely forthcoming.

The ship has a very long history in service to the Galactic Republic; over 200 years of service, in fact, having been built during the previous Galactic Republic. The ship is “noble” in the sense that it is the first of its class, making it “distinguished” as only the ancient can be. The Bright Dawn carries another distinction, once which the players will not be aware of at first, but which may be discovered during the course of the campaign.

For all its age, the Bright Dawn is in fact an effective vessel, but it does require constant maintenance and repair, and fully a quarter of its internal storage and repair facilities are engaged in keeping the ship spaceworthy.

GM’s NOTE: In game terms, this means the Bright Dawn will suffer a noticeable system malfunction of some sort every week. The severity will vary, but will range from internal lighting failure throughout a deck or between bulkheads, lack of hot water, grav-plate polarities reversing, maneuvering thrusters malfunctioning, fighter bays failing to re-pressurize or spontaneously depressurizing, and virtually anything the GM can think of or randomly generate and at some random level of severity.
This will go from amusing the players to annoying them to eventually becoming background noise, but the randomness of the severity will mean that at times the malfunction will be so severe that dealing with the problem will become, in a very real sense, the “adventure” for that week, as the players must drop whatever exciting mission they were looking forward to in order to repair, for example, the Bright Dawn’s non-functional sewage system before they are overwhelmed by infectious contamination.

The Bright Dawn is large enough to carry several support spacecraft. It begins the campaign with four full squadrons of fighters, two squadrons of X-Wings and two squadrons of Y-Wings. There is more than enough room in its hangars for several personal spacecraft, shuttles, and at least two Assault Boats. She is also equipped with one squadron of prototype A-Wing fighters; Alliance High Command wants these new designs tested and evaluated in sectors where they are unlikely to encounter Imperial forces, to maintain their secrecy. Finally, the Bright Dawn carries two full squadrons of disassembled Z-95 Headhunters in storage, in case her need for fighter support proves critical.

Her shipboard troop complement consists of a full Company of Republic ship’s troops and a squad of SpecForce Commandoes. The player characters themselves comprise the Bright Dawn’s “special operations” unit, fulfilling whatever duties their skills best suit them for; military, diplomatic, scientific or whatever the case may be.

Opening Scene

The player characters have arrived at the orbital spacedock where the Bright Dawn has finished receiving her last load of supplies and personnel; the ship awaits only their presence aboard or in escort to begin her mission.

Player One: Is that what I think it is? That’s not what I think it is. Is it? Please say it’s not.
Player Two: I think this is the part where one of us says “What a piece of ju—”
Player Three (the new commanding officer of the Bright Dawn, if applicable, or the most experienced member of the team): That’ll do, people. This is the ship, that’s where our berths are for the duration, so get used to it. Besides, unless you’re flying escort, you won’t have to look at her from the outside.
Player One: Five to one says she doesn’t look any better from the inside…
Player Four (the techie of the group, or the historian): Huh. Interesting… Dreadnought displacement, but indeterminate class… Blade, maybe? Or Sword? I dunno… still… there’s something familiar about that hull outline… and the bow configuration is just… weird!
Player Three: You’re sure it’s just not so old you’ve only seen it in history holos?
Player Four: That’s the point… It’s obviously very old, and yet…
Player Two: And yet we’re still getting aboard, for who knows how long.
Player Three: Go on. You said: “Very old, and yet”?
Player Four: And yet I’ve never seen a holo of that vessel. Nor of any other vessel like it. Anything the Republic ever built that was that old, I would know about.
Player One: Well if you’re that good, then obviously it ain’t Republic, genius.
Player Four: Oh, it’s Republic all right. The question is: Which one?
Player Two: Oh, brother. And you’re supposed to be the smart one!

What a high Tech skill or historically-expert character unconsciously notices about the Bright Dawn is that certain physical characteristics of her hull do not match standards of naval architecture, because they are in fact not vessel components at all, but ground structures used as components of the ship. Most notably, the entire bow once served as the Great Hall of a noble family’s palace on Alderaan, and it’s culturally distinct design still bears traces of the inlaid patterns that once graced its walls. The reason for these attachments may be discovered during the course of the campaign, but for now it is enough that there is something not quite right about the Bright Dawn, and there is more to the mystery surrounding her than just her age and origin.

END PART ONE
_________________
"None of us is as smart as we'd like to think we are; more important, nobody else is as stupid as we'd like to believe they are."

[schnarre]

...Sounds like the Bright Dawn might have been an inspiration for the Dark Force fleet in the setting you're describing.

...If memory serves, the Dreadnaught could normally carry 1 fighter squadron: 5, with 2 in reserve (some assembly required ), gives the ship technically more fighters than an Imperial-class Star Destroyer's 6 squadrons. While probably of minor import, to me it seems a bit much. I could see structure ripped out to accommodate up to 4 squadrons--I could see 2 Y-Wing, & 2 Z-95 due to lower maintenance demands-- with perhaps fewer &/or more varied weapons array. There would likely be some distinguishing design feature that may relate to the discerning that this isn't a normal ship of its class, but again that's not a major thing.
...I loved the idea of regular system malfunctions occurring! That'll especially keep the technical PCs on their toes. I can just imagine the reaction of characters to the "non-functional sewage system"

...Looks like a good deal of potential here! Let us know how things develop!
_________________
The man who thinks he knows everything is most annoying for those of us that do.

[Guardian_A]

Sounds like you have a nice little storyline planned. Like schnarre, I'd enjoy hearing how the campaign progresses.

It would be neat to have a "Random malfunction" chart with a way to cause the events to happen at random. (Maybe 1D6 days, plus 4D6 hours? If you roll a 6 for days, roll again, 1=0 Days, 2-4=Stays the same, 6=1D6 more days?) If you have one malfunction a week, or one per gaming session, the players will come to expect that pattern and plan accordlingly. By keeping things completely random, then they never know what to expect.

As for the Dreadnaught carry capacity, you could probably work something out where you sacrifice some of the fighter and/or cargo space in favor of enough space to park one larger ship.