Starting a Campaign

[Lord Zash]

So... finally a year after I joined this forum... I run my own game!

I am going to use this post to write how the campaign unfolds, if moderators consider it a pain please delete. Sorry if my written English is not great (I'm not native English speaker).


So I run Rebel Breakout, started with an initial group of 6 players and took two sessions in which 1 couldn't come and other left in the middle of the session. So, I learnt a big lesson straight away:
- smaller group for me please (I'm an unexperienced master). Won't count with 2 of them again as one has an impossible work schedule and the other is that typical character that does bad stuff that clearly generates some tension at the table even though the guy in real life is lovely (at one of the points caused an argument at the table between 2 players which made me intervene hahah). He kept doing stuff that didn't make much sense (before running this game I gave them a super quick briefing about what this game's about) but he kept arguing that it's what his character would have done and it's the nature of his character. So he is not coming back ahhaha. As much as it's my job as a master to ensure everyone is having fun... this guy is too disruptive.



The adventure itself was great, very very fast paced even though it took us two sessions. I run it all with 1st Edition, not revised although used initiative system. Nobody died, one of them was injured though but they could all get out easy enough. Everybody said they had a great time, so I reckon I did alright, even though I think it's quite hard to be a game master and have a lot to learn still.

So they would love to carry on and develop their characters. As the group is going to be 4 of them I have these players (I have 2 boys and 2 girls):

2 siblings:
1 is a male pirate and 1 is a female pilot. Haven't worked too much with them on their backgrounds but they had some cool scenes together. Best one... they were running on one of the tunnels in Mesa 291 which started crumbling down, one of them felt to the floor and passed out and the other decided to protect her bro with her own body to avoid further damage. I granted a exp point for that because I thought it was a great moment.

1 young senator:
This player is lovely and she wants a strong charismatic but quite young and slightly arrogant figure. I have worked a background with her, nothing too crazy or original. Her native planet is a not very important one located near the outer rim territories, rich in a mineral that is quite important to build starships (... because why not?) and that had always mantained a neutral status trading this mineral across the galaxy. However the father of this character, an old senator, was not really happy with the Empire and started making secret treaties with other planets in favour of the Rebellion (nothing major but giving trade advantages to manufacturers of Rebel Ships etc). Everything low key... Emperor finds out and sends the Imperial fleet to the player's planet... wipes out government and the player's family and that's why this guy who now is a bit of a nobody... wants to join the Rebellion.

1 Warrior type
He happens to be the husband of the player that plays the young senator and they wanted to have some sort of friendship in the game. He's going to be like some sort of Gurney Halleck, mentor type of figure.


No force or jedis now... as it's too much rules for me.


Game was great, fast paced, we tried the combat rules they went alright, nothing crazy. When they got into the Y WINGs and decided to escape through the main cavern with the imperial AT-ATs coming... I had to totally improvise as I don't have a good knowledge of the rules for vehicles etc.

So 1 of the siblings is a great pilot. He said he wanted to entertain the AT-ATs a bit to give time for her friends to escape in the other Y WINGS.
I had no idea how to handle this so I said... ok, you do some maneuver with your Y WING (difficulty 20). He got it right so I described the action, the AT-ATs try to catch up but everybody is already on the run and they leave. Player felt great (I was a bit dissapointed because I didn't want to show them that I had no clue how to handle the situation but I think it went alright).


So, all of them left MESA 291 with the coordinates to the secret base on the planet.....................
.......

[Lord Zash]

..... Planet Hoth.


So before Leia, Han and Luke get there I want my players to visit this base and then we will decide what to do.


The senator wants to regain control of his planet but I don't have a clue on how a group of 4 heroes could restore the control of a Planet. I discuss with this player that probably there were a lot of loyal people to his family still left but they are afraid to speak due to Imperial Control. Maybe they can help.

I thought one of the moons of this planet could have a shield so maybe a major mission will be de-activating the shield, call the Rebel fleet and then invade the planet again and regain control.

However, right now they will be in Hoth and to be honest to me it seems that Rebels got more important things to do like getting Echo Base up and running. So I don't really know why would they give much importance to this young senator of a small planet near the Outer Rim. The planet has valuable mineral so that could be cool, but then as I imagine the Rebel Alliance they haven't got much material to do a bit invasion? So not really sure how to handle it.


I thought maybe as Rebel Breakout is completely adrenaline based adventure, non stop, no time to talk... then this next one, 100% homebrew I could give them time to know each other and maybe do small stuff on Hoth's Echo Base?

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[Lord Zash]

Ah man!


great ideas in your post. Thanks for all your suggestions, all points taken!


Got some questions though, you know Rebel Breakout starts right in the action. How would you deal with how the players got there in the first place?

The young senator wanted a diplomatic ship, nothing too crazy, I thought it would make sense. His master of arms, his loyal protocol droid C4P2 (in Spanish translates as C4farts) and him could last minute escape his Planet (Edden) back when it was being invaded by the Imperial Fleet. I thought I won't make the ship really good, just a diplomatic transport with no signs or anything as to not catch much attention.

The two siblings, are most probably going to be outcast. 1 of them is a pirate and could have escaped from his old pirate mates or he could have been only survivor of some sort of crazy shenanigans. Will have to discuss it with the player The other is an expert pilot but I don't want everybody in the party to have ships because it's a bit mental. I'd like them to travel together.

But yep, they all kind of hinted at the table they would love to have a ship, so I thought... ok, maybe I give one of them one (the senator). It will probably create some cool Firefly/Serenity moments

However, mesa 291 starts with all of them in the mine. I've thought that maybe the senator and his companion left the ship in a secret hangar paying some money to a Bothan native?
After this adventure they will have to recover it I guess but somebody has it?

How would you deal with it? Young Senator and his companion have a ship, nothing crazy, nothing too big. They had to leave it somewhere in the planet Bothawui to get to Mesa 291... did they catch a taxi or something ahahah?

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

Young Senatorial Ship

What if the mine on Bothan's Planet was run, by contract, by the Senatorial's family company? You did say that the Imperials took over the mining business on her homeworld, right?

So, Mesa 291 is abandoned now because of the Imperial involvement (mismanagement, over-mined or mined out, or just not enough Imperial resources to take over all of the Senatorial's mines, so they closed this one down.)

And, her father was helping the Alliance. What if he knew Tiree and arranged to have the four Y-Wings waiting for the new Rebels?

Why didn't the players know this when they were playing that adventure?

The Young Senatorial didn't know all this secret stuff about her father. She's finding it out--by speaking with the Rebels, through Deo, and through info she's found at Mesa 291.

Just brainstorming here.





A Ship.

Let's say that the system that holds Bothan's Planet--we'll call it the Ahwie system--has an asteroid belt far in the outer reaches of the system.

Maybe the Senatorial's father had his eye on this belt for development--mining--in order to expand the operation on Bothan's Planet. Of course, this idea was abandoned once the Empire took over the mining operation.

For safe keeping, the Senatorial's father could have hidden a cache out in the asteroid belt.

Did the PCs pick up anything at Mesa 291 while they were there? A computer core? Did Deo interact with any of the computers in the mine?

If so, then this is where the Senatorial finds out this information--while examining it on Hoth.

Looking at the adventure, there are seven flight suits and six headset comlinks left behind by Tiree for the new recruits. Maybe the suits have these small flight recorders as part of them. Or, the comlinks could have some stored files. The Young Senatorial discovers the file--it's her father talking to her.

"Sassy (whatever her name is), if you've made it this far, then you might make it all the way. In the belt of the Ahwie, I have hidden a cache of supplies in case they are needed. If you are hearing this, then I am dead and you are probably helping the Alliance. Go to the belt and scan on the Talc frequency. Look down in the two thousand range. You'll see a weak signal. Follow it. It will direct you to the cache."





THE CACHE OF THE AHWIE SYSTEM

Here, in a "mining box", which is a temporary shelter placed by mining companies on the outside of an asteroid, is housed a hangar with a ship and any other supplies that you wish to provide for the PCs and the Rebels on Hoth.

You could make this cool by having in the cache something needed by the Hoth base. Remember the sensors planted by Luke and Han at the beginning of TESB? Maybe these are old mining sensors, re-tuned by the Rebels to detect ships, vehicles, and personnel. Because of this cache of mining sensors, Hoth base is able to set up a sensor net around the Hoth base.

There could be some arms there, too, left there by the Senatorial's father in case they were needed. Maybe he was picturing an uprising on Bothan's Planet.

In the hanger, the PC will find a ship--the ship that you want them to have. It doesn't have to be a hunk of junk. Why not give them a cool ship with some neat attributes?




GETTING THE SHIP

You've got an entire adventure here!

Or, you can just describe it off screen. The PCs go and get the ship. The mission goes off without a hitch. They return to Hoth to carry on with the campaign.

Or...

The Senatorial and her friends take a couple of the Y-Wings out to find the cache. Unknown to them, the Imperials have already found the cache through the records at Mesa 291, but they've left it undisturbed as bait. They're watching, looking to catch more Rebels.

As soon as the Y-Wings fly into the area, TIEs are scrambled from Bothan's Planet.

The Rebels will have time to get into the cache. Did they leave someone out on patrol in space? Or, maybe, at least Deo is left to use the ship's sensors?

Don't help the players on this. Let them learn from their mistakes.

If no one is on the sensors, and no one is flying patrol, then the Imperials catch them by surprise.

TIEs swarm the asteroid (this asteroid field is not super dense like the one shown in TESB), and an assault shuttle lands off-loading stormtroopers.

It's a fight!

Maybe the PCs have to get into space suits and fight on the surface of the asteroid!

And, once away, the Y-Wings and the Senatorial's ship has to deal with the TIEs or race to jump into hyperspace.

But...maybe the PCs are captured! And, this leads to another adventure that you'll have to make up. Escape from Bothan's Planet, part II. Or, maybe they go to Bothan's Planet first, then are transferred to a Star Destroyer--and have to escape from that.



Dog Fight!

If they did have someone on sensors (a patrol or someone using the ship's sensors from within the hangar bay), then the PCs will have some warning and can launch.

This still turns into a dog fight with the TIEs.

Once the fight is good and going, sensors pick up TIE bombers incoming from Bothan's Planet. The PCs will have X amount of time to get out of the dog fight and enter hyperspace before the bombers get in range to pound the Y-Wings with Ion torpedoes...capturing the fighters and the Senatorial ship...and, well, you know...see above for the capture.

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

LANT MINING CORPORATION

I always believe in making the most of the materials provided us in sourceobooks. There's lots of mining company references in the various SW supplements and adventures. One that comes to mind is a Chapter-sized write up in the Flashpoint Brack Sector book.

Lant Mining Corp is described on page 23 of that book. If you read its history, the Old Republic broke the company up because it had a monopoly.

You could have the Young Senatorial's home world mining company associated with Lant, somehow. Edden Mining maybe was created when the Old Republic broke it up.

There's lots of good info in that chapter to use in growing the Young Senatorial's background and in adventures to come.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Mesa 291 could be a Edden Company mining site.

In the Lant Corp background, it discusses Palpatine nationalizing large companies that do not support the Empire. Lant came out and opening supported the Empire before this happened to them.

I guess the sister company, Edden Mining, did not, and that part of the operation was nationalized.

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

EQUINOX.



I was thinking that a Barloz class Corellian Medium Freighter, from Stock Ships, would be a good choice for the Senatorial vessel.

You've got 4 players. Upgrade the ship to have two quad laser cannons, and each of your players will have a role in starship combat. Put two on each of he laser cannon turrets. One serves as pilot. The last serves as Co-Pilot, operating sensors, shields, and/or Astrogation.

If you read the description of the Barloz, it seems to fit with the mining company background. Plus, it's old enough to be in the Edden Company fleet from long ago. Nobody would notice it missing--thinking it had probably been decommissioned or sold.

An old ore hauler converted into an executive HQ vessel. Perfect for the Senatorial.

As for the name, I just thought Equinox sounded cool. The equinox is, of course, that time when the sun crosses the equator, making day and night of equal length.

Metaphorically, here enters the Equinox, giving strength to the Light in its battle of the Night.

Just a thought.

[Whill]

[Raven Redstar]

When I think of a Senator's Transport, I can't help but feel like some sort of Yacht would be the best choice. They're usually pretty quick, but not super heavily armed or armored.

I've always been a fan of the Baudo-class Yacht. It's a sleek looking ship: Fast, but not heavily armed or armored. Also, because of the limited cargo capacity, it limits the amount of modifications and upgrades you can throw into it.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Baudo-class_star_yacht
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RR
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[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

Or, how about the YT-1760 - Damn Fine Corellian Engineering!

[Argentsaber]

Just wanted to chime in and say thanks for sharing!
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"The universe is driven by the complex interaction between three ingredients: matter, energy, and enlightened self-interest."
G'Kar, Survivors (Babylon 5)

[Lord Zash]

In an unexpected turn of events we had to postpone our Discworld game today because the guy that plays the pilot is on holidays and one of the girls couldn't turn up after work but it was a last minute thing! So there you had the couple (young senator + his guard/master of arms) and me frustrated because we couldn't carry on our Discworld adventure....


So I stepped up to the challenge and kinda went for it because I had the story more developed for these two players anyway and had done some research on Hoth's Echo Base.


Sorry if you are a hardcore fan, your eyes are probably about to bleed...

I gathered my stuff, pen and paper, few names here and there and off we go to Hoth....

Our PCs arrive from Mesa291 to Echo Base just a week before Leia Organa visits. At the base, General Rieekan, Pharl McQuarrie, Toryn Farr etc. are working under a pressure to have it all ready in time. Ion Cannon is not fully operative yet, Delta and Beta Points are being built and some new troops are arriving to Echo Base which is full of activity.

Of the 4 players, the 2 not present go to take a rest and we leave them on hold. So I have the senator and his old companion.

I did a lot of descriptions for them trying to get them to be in a set with a loads of personality. Cold tunnels, people everywhere doing their stuff, crazy big hangar with two GR-75 medium transports (one of the players loved this bit, although I made him roll to see if he would recognised the ship, he did incredibly well so I gave him some extra info on the particullar transport).

Our young senator and companion do take a rest, the senator's wounds (from Mesa 291, nothing too crazy) are treated at the medical barracks while Tiree is put in a Bacta Tank.

From their arrival our two characters are treated with respect by crew and command at the base. I thought there was no reason for not treating them like that. The droid R2D0 confirms only them got the secret coordinates to get to Echo Base. Not only that they managed to bring Tiree alive and also a few Y-Wings worth plenty of money.

After a lot of descriptions and them getting in the Echo Base setting, both get a private meeting with the General in Command and some other high command personnel (General Rieekan, Pharl McQuarrie, Toryn Farr).

I used this section to have them learn more about their background. We have worked it together but players will be expected in the future to know their stuff. This session helped them a lot to memorize/familiarize themselves with all the stuff (even though they helped creating it). By the end of the session both players were talking about their characters and had defined more the way they act etc.

So in the meeting with the high command a few things were discussed.

The young senator wants his (it's a her in real life) ship back. However, I said to her that communications are very very restricted only with safe channels checked at both ends. It was a way for me to say to her... sorry you can't contact the droid and your ship. Ain't going to be that easy...


In 3 days Captain Solo will probably be back to the base with some ship they will be able to use. The Generals in command see fit giving our heroes a ship in exchange for bringing back those Y-Wings and Tiree alive risking their own lives.

In 7 days, Leia Organa will visit Echo Base. Both being ex-senators will probably get a quick meeting with her! Why the heck not? xD


Loads of other stuff discussed there. Rebels understand the situtation at Planet Edden and its potential value for its mining resources but right now it's not even a priority and they are flat out with work here at Echo Base and other parts of the Galaxy. Even though they would love to help our heroes... they just can't right now.


So after that meeting and being properly welcome at Echo Base our young senator and his companion spent the rest of the evening at the hangar. There (in my version) they have Captain Jake Nemara. He tells them some tasty information about temperatures dropping to -60oC at night, keeping the hangar door closed, work at the hangars, tauntauns, new recruits. This Jake is a bit of a veteran and recognises the senator's companion as another veteran, mutual respect... So, for some laughs Jake Nemara suggests that our veteran warrior takes on some of those new recruits the day after and gives them a bit of training.

Final scene... the morning after, fully suited for the freezing cold, our two heroes get a weapons upgrade (nothing crazy, I gave them blaster rifles) and our Gurney Halleck gets a few fresh recruits for a shooting training outside. The Senator (Lionel) puts his scarf and goes with them too in snow clothes like any other rebel. Gurney went slightly full metal jacket with the new recruits at short range as I said some of them were kids with no much training. But then in what I thought it was a really cool role-playing when they got to medium range... instead of carrying on being a bully with them he started actually teaching them to aim, correcting posture and bringing that mentor side of his character.

Funniest scene happened when we got to long range... Our Gurney Halleck tried to do a fast shot and he missed! (difficulty 20, he got an 19). He takes his binoculars and looks at the target with the shape of a stormtrooper. I said, you hit but just a little bit in the shoulder.
Thing is... this guy comes from Edden, a Planet with nice climate. Even though he's a veteran, it's a clear morning and they are all wearing winter gear... it's freezing cold and he notices his hands shaking a bit. So he relaxes... prepares (I grant him an extra die) and boom, headshot to the target. All the new recruits are well impressed!

And with that... we left it there.

Not bad for an off the cuff session and a completely new master!

[Lord Zash]

So just wanted to say thanks for your tips!

Totally using some stuff you guys have suggested:


Equinox, love it! Love the name. In 3 days our heroes are going to have the chance to grab a transport. The corellian YT1760 freighter Equinox.
https://pre00.deviantart.net/c1e8/th/pre/i/2014/066/5/d/corellian_yt_1760_freighter_commission_by_adamkop-d740b95.jpg

I have always loved the look of that ship. However I want to make it a bit old and rusty.




With that, they can finally go and see if they can find the young senator's ship. Which is going to be definitely a Baudo Class Yatch. Showed it to the player, she absolutely loved it. The name of the ship is the Black Rat (ask her... not my idea xD) and as the name says... it's going to be completely black.
Thank you so much for the suggestion!




Also in the meeting with the high command at Echo Base I mentioned stuff they can use to see where the adventure goes:

-Wait 3 days until they get their wonky corellian freighter. I'm already loving this, the senator is not going to be impressed ahhaha.

-They said in the meantime they want to help. One of the captains has reported two engineers missing around Perimeter Outpost Delta. You all know what this means...WAMPA!

- Wait 7 days until Leia gets to the base and try to get a private meeting with her.

Totally going to look to Lant Mining Corp and try to work out a relationship with Edden Mining Corp. This might unfold during the conversation. The senator's dad was preparing him for when he would take over the role... but maybe he didn't tell our heroe everything about the business.... Loads to discover.




By the way... the senator ship... of course it's not going to be there when they get to the place that it's suppossed to be hahaha.
One of the other characters is an ex-pirate... maybe his old mates know something about where the ship is...