Adventure/Campaign Ideas, blatently stolen...

aegisflashfire

AKA. I watch too much TV and far too many movies

A campaign centered around field medics on the front lines of the Galactic Civil War or Clone Wars (MASH ripoff)

A jedi, trying to redeem himself tags on with a a non-powered 'good character' try to do enough good acts to rejoin the light. The force leads them to people who need saving. (Highway to Heaven, many others)

Bounty Hunter Campaign featuring a family of bounty hunters. (Aka Dog the Bounty Hunter, natch)

A naturalist seeking out rare and exotic creatures, could go with a Scouts campaign, (River Monsters)

A conspiracy infiltrates the highest levels of the Rebel Alliance, seeing to pervert it into something else entirely (Agents of SHIELD)

The players are on a liner that has a bomb on it. it will explode if they drop out of hyperspace. (Speed)

Players are supposed to be negotiating a treaty with an alien species, when their leader is murdered, Players must navigate the (lethal) politics while they try to determine who should lead, the leader's brother/sister or child (who may or may not be insane) - (Hamlet)

--tbc
_________________
http://swfallingstar.podbean.com
GM of Falling Star: D6 Star Wars Campaign Podcast

Bobmalooga · Posted: Sat May 17, 2014 8:35 am Post subject:

I once ran an adventure that was Jurassic Park meets Last of the Dogmen. The players landed on a planet inhabited by intelligent, but primitive, velociraptors and got mad when the Jedi was able to finally learn that they weren't the enemy. I had one player pout and say 'My character goes and takes a nap on the $#%##$#$# ship, this was about 10 minutes before the fighting broke out...then he wanted to be in the middle of the action, I told him he was napping and I'd get back to him.
_________________
No matter where you go, there you are...

lurker · Posted: Sat May 17, 2014 9:12 am Post subject:

Dromdarr_Alark · Posted: Sat May 17, 2014 11:52 am Post subject:

I just watched Godzilla. So many ideas...
_________________
"I still wouldn't have a roll for it - but that's just how I roll."

Fallon Kell

aegisflashfire · Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 2:36 pm Post subject:

Okay, a little more background here. I want my Star Wars stories to be Epic. I want to employ tropes and themes that resonate deeply with the players. Yes, I sometimes steal plot ideas from TV... but the best sources are stories that have stood the test of time; stories that have continued to be repeated for hundreds or thousands of years. Of course they require a Star Wars spin.

Which tales fit this paradigm? And what do I mean the 'star wars spin'
I'm just going to grab a bunch of these and throw out an idea or two or what I might gain from adding these story elements in star wars story. Remember, that these elements can simply be back story, or side plots that enrich your environment. (or red herrings)

Lets start with Shakespeare. (and since I like my stories dark, we'll start with Tragedies)
Troilus and Cressida - Characters in this play a often both noble & corrupt. Unfaithful yet honorable. Too often Star Wars characters are all good or all bad. Try for some ambiguity. Your Rebel leader may be skimming off the top or have a hatred of one particular race and so let them die saving everyone else. Your Imperial governor, despite his brutal rule may be honorable enough to die for his family.

Coriolanus - Very much a political drama, I can see all of it playing out amongst the leadership of the Rebellion & Empire or even in the Old Republic. Just change a few names.

Titus Andronicus - Another political drama played out against a succession of the title of Emperor of Rome. Revenge and family squabbling. This story MIGHT actually be too dark for Star Wars, though some elements could play out. But rape, cannibalism, infanticide should probably be off your table. The characters here are nearly all way way over the moral event horizon. Still, you want to show just how far into the dark side someone has become? This play might be a good starting point.

Romeo & Juliet - Star Crossed lovers are an easy thing to mix into any plot. And while its the most famous conflict is these two lovers, its easy to forget that R&J are barely even teenagers. (14 iirc) You could introduce this plot, (daughter of rebel leader falls for Moff's Son) and let it start to broker the peace...only to have young love turn fickle... and have the peace explode in everyone's face. (possibly even literally)

Timon of Athens - A wealthy man foolishly gives away all his money thinking he is buying real friends. When he overextends himself, nearly all the friends turn up false. The man swears revenge, and finding new wealth uses it to fund an attack on the city full of people who were false. I could see a number of ways to go with this, but both Tapani sector nobility would be a great place to start, but the Imperial aristocracy could also be a good starting place. I think this works better as a backstory to a NPC (or PC) than as a main plot, but....

Julius Ceaser - What immediately jumps to mind is the squabbling for leadership of the Empire after the death of Palpatine. The Moffs could attempt to find a leader among them, and the most militarily successful one is selected to lead only to be assassinated by a collection of Moffs opposed to a new single leaders. the Various Moffs prepare to go to war with each other leaving the heroes to either broker a peace (potentially propping up the Imperial remnants) or try to get the innocents out of the crossfire or risk a war on 2 fronts taking on both factions.

MacBeth - Prophecy is under used in Star Wars games. There is certainly room for it in the Force. MacBeth deals with revenge, ambition, and yes prophecy. Give a vision of the future; holocron, Farseeing, something, but fulfill it in an unexpected way. No man can kill XX, is easily fulfilled by a droid, asteroid or the like. Ambition too can be a powerful incentive. Instead of Lady MacBeth pulling the strings, its a Sith artifact; a tempter driving someone forward. Like all temptation, the dangers of that temptation must be subtle, and the potential rewards great.

Hamlet - There is so much to say here, I'm not going to say it all. But the one that jumps out at me is actually as a PC background. An heir to the throne's father/mother is killed and someone else takes the throne. The young heir flees or waffles instead of trying to take the throne, and finds him/herself in the rebellion. (a bit too Lone Star in Spaceballs perhaps.) Madness too is a theme, and not really well explored in Star Wars. I suppose Casdan Paratus. Watto seems a bit far gone in ATOC, and Yoda fakes Madness as Hamlet does.

King Lear - Again the play deals with infidelity, betrayal by siblings, and the succession of the throne. . The honest child of Lear is the only one who is disinherited (another potential PC background) Marital infidelity isn't often a topic for Star Wars, but I could see that being a complication in a character's background, or the past coming back to haunt them. (so often PC's are single....what if they're betrothed, married, or promised to someone? Just check with your players... this may hit a little close to home for some.

Othello - Racism can certainly be part of your morality play. But the stronger theme here is Jealousy. Again, personal relationships dont often play into RPG scenarios, but they're actually integral to Star Wars. Han & Luke are jealous of each other over Leia's affections. It is strongly hinted that Anakin's fall to the dark side is tied in with jealousy when he feels Obi Wan is somehow working with Padme. (its also repeated in the Clone Wars series several times) This could also be a good way to pull a bait & switch on your players when their supposed badguy is deposed by their second who was jealous. (or the reverse, your bad guy can cross over that moral event horizon BECAUSE of jealousy)

Antony & Cleopatra - Political leaders often marry for political reasons. But sometimes its love. I can see players caught up in a struggle between two worlds where their leaders (or leader & a general) are in love. Do they love each other more than they love their homeland? Your NPCs can make epic choices too. In the end, Anthony and Cleopatra commits suicide separately. He for love and she for pride rather than see herself paraded through the streets. The image of the leader falling on their sword for their people is a powerful one and will resonate with your players. The other element that strikes me is Cleopatra hiding some of Egypt's wealth from Rome. That could be a whole subplot.
_________________
http://swfallingstar.podbean.com
GM of Falling Star: D6 Star Wars Campaign Podcast

Bobmalooga · Posted: Fri May 23, 2014 9:06 am Post subject:

I've used everything from Television (Magnum P.I., The Tomorrow People, Powers of Matthew Starr and Dark Angel) to Movies (Tombstone, Aliens and Titan A.E. (drifter colonies are great...LOL) and Terminator) to books (The Bible, Helm and the works of Lovecraft and King...) I kept the Imperial Super Weapon angle in my games, but tended to mix Sci-Fi with my space opera...
_________________
No matter where you go, there you are...

DougRed4 · Posted: Fri May 23, 2014 2:43 pm Post subject:

Excellently written, aegisflashfire. You give a lot of great ideas for stories to draw from. And I say that as one whose love for Shakespeare is probably equal with how you feel about Adventure Scripts! Wink

To be fair, I'd probably enjoy the stories more if they were in a language I understood (same beef I have with the King James Bible). Just over a week ago my daughter had a major role in "Romeo and Juliet", as a matter of fact.

I think using established and tried-and-true stories is a smart way of doing things. I'm not at all afraid to draw on other sources; in fact, I think it would be rare to find somebody who did everything without any influence from things they see, read, or experience.

I have mixed feelings about having every story have to be epic, as this guy writes. I think Star Wars is very much able to be adapted into just about any kind of storytelling (and not all of it has to be, as he puts it "incredibly important"). Still, he makes some good points, like keeping the focus on the main characters.

While I was searching for that (above) article, I stumbled across this one; it's long (and I haven't gotten a chance to read it yet) and was originally written for D20, but it looks like it has some great tips for incorporating some of these mythic elements in one's game.
_________________
Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

aegisflashfire · Posted: Fri May 23, 2014 2:59 pm Post subject:

Read the wikipedia plot synopsis of each of these. Not nearly so hard to understand, (though there are sometimes a lot of characters) but you can get tons of ideas just reading through.
_________________
http://swfallingstar.podbean.com
GM of Falling Star: D6 Star Wars Campaign Podcast

lurker · Posted: Fri May 23, 2014 3:59 pm Post subject:

aegisflashfire · Posted: Fri May 23, 2014 4:10 pm Post subject:

Oh, I plan another one of these just on Greek & Roman mythology.

The Odyssey, Illiad (perhaps without the horse), Scylla & Charybdis, Golden Apples, Medusa, all the jealousies and betrayals among the pantheon. All good stuff.
_________________
http://swfallingstar.podbean.com
GM of Falling Star: D6 Star Wars Campaign Podcast

Seghast · Cadet Joined: 13 Jun 2014 Posts: 22

We've done a few Alien-inspired adventures in our group for fun before, and some Indiana Jones style adventures in ancient ruins. There were one and two-shot adventures only, though, a break from the campaign's real story.

I did have a Stargate-inspired campaign for a bit; the war was over, the galaxy was at peace, and an archaeological team found an unusual ring at a digsite. After working with it for a while, they managed to activate it and realized it was a gateway to another world in an unknown sector of space, possibly another galaxy.

This news was made public rather than kept private like the movie; this was to be the dawn of a new age of exploration and people had a right to know and be inspired. An intrepid crew was chosen to go explore this new world and send back regular reports through the gate: some scientists, a couple of soldiers, a Jedi...

But once they had reached the other side, the team found they couldn't re-open the portal home; the glyph sequence they had didn't work. They found a chart of other glyphs, addresses to other worlds, and began portal jumping in the hopes of finding their way home.

The campaign ultimately fell apart because of a single player, who had been the GM of our previous campaign. "That's not how I'd do it" and "that's not what the book says" became staples of his and it drove me nuts. It was like he was going out of his way to drag the game down. The other two players confided in me privately that they enjoyed the campaign and that if he wasn't going to behave, I should boot him from the group or kill his character off. Since reasoning with him hadn't worked, I toyed with the ideas but ultimately discarded them because despite his behavior, he was my friend.

Still, after about five adventures (yes, only five), I got so disgusted that I threw in the towel and ended the campaign because of him. Afterwards he wanted to start a new campaign with him resuming duties as GM, but the other players wanted no part of him or his behavior and our original group fell apart.

DougRed4 · Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 6:16 pm Post subject:

That's too bad about your friend, Seghast, but I understood why you did what you did.

Our supers group has two different GMs that have heavily drawn on Stargate for multiple space adventures. We've even "played through" some episodes and story arcs from the show(s).

Welcome to the Rancor Pit, by the way! Very Happy

_________________
Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

Seghast · Cadet Joined: 13 Jun 2014 Posts: 22

crazydanny1 · Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 9:46 pm Post subject:

One of the first adventures I ever ran was "Surviving the Game" where my player, who's character was an ex-Sector Ranger on the run from the Imps, got hired to be a hunting/safari guide on this backwater planet. Turns out that he, along with about five others, were the ones being hunted, rather than being guides.

I enjoyed that one, along with the player. I later rehashed it for our larger, regular group, although it was probably too over-the-top the second time around, because of the changes that had to be made for three plus players, rather than one.
_________________
"Sarcasm is just one of the many services I provide."

http://swbloodlines.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars_Bloodlines_Wiki

	The Rancor Pit Forum Index -> Gamemasters	All times are GMT - 4 Hours
Page 1 of 1