Making 'em beg...

[notmalcolypse]

So, I'm prepping a new game and would like some comments from the fine folks here on the rancor pit forums.

I've got the start of it worked out so that the characters can be vile pirates during the later centuries of the Old Republic days. I've stolen the names of two famous Star Wars pirate organizations, but have ignored their canon information beyond that.

This game grew out of an argument I had with a friend about the Star Wars Random Cargo Generator located here: http://gmsarligames.com/cargogenerator.php

I was arguing that even a small ship could potentially carry enough cargo for a pirate to retire on using this method of determining what's on it. Why would any pirate continue to risk life and limb if by robbing half a dozen ships, they could be millionaires many times over?

The answer, of course, was to give my pcs an incurable but treatable disease that would require huge sums of money to keep under control, thus forcing them to continue the only means they have available of laying hands on such sums.

Then my potential players cried out, "But I don't wanna have Wookiee Crotch Rot!" And so I had to come up with another plan to keep 'em pirating for a while. My actual answer then became to place them in a situation that required them to become indebted to another pirate organization that had the money, sapient power, and spite to hunt them to the end of the galaxy if they didn't pay up.

The first session opening crawl goes something like this:


YOUR ROVING BAND OF NE'ER-DO-WELLS HAS FOUND THEMSELVES IN A BIT OF TROUBLE.

WHILE RAIDING A TRANSPORT SHIP AS MEMBERS OF THE INFAMOUS NIGHT FANGS PIRATE FLEET, THE PARTY SEEMS TO HAVE BECOME TRAPPED IN THE DAMAGED HULK OF THE BOARDING SHIP AS THE REST OF THE PIRATES FLED, CHASED BY THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES.

ABANDONED BY THEIR NOW FORMER COMRADES, THE PARTY IS OFFERED A BARGAIN BY THEIR APPARENT RESCUERS, THE VOID WINGS PIRATE GANG.

THEY'RE WILLING TO SAVE THE PARTY AND SET THEM UP TO HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO CONTINUE THEIR LIVES OF PIRACY, BUT THEY'LL HAVE TO TAKE ON A RATHER SUBSTANTIAL DEBT TO THE VOID WINGS.

THE QUESTION SIMPLY BECOMES...

HOW MUCH ARE YOUR LIVES WORTH?


And the first game of the session begins with the characters negotiating a price for their lives and the help of this pirate gang.

So, my requests of those of you who didn't fall asleep reading all this is:

1. What seems like a good price for the services rendered by the pirates, seeing as my goal is that after three or four sessions the characters can once again be independent?

2. How much would you actually let the players adjust that amount by, either through good rolls or good role playing?

And finally...
3. Would anyone be willing to throw some good pirate-y adventures at me to amuse or torment my players?

Thanks in advance for your comments and this awesome community of D6 Star Wars goodness.

[Raven Redstar]

Well, one good way to do it could be years of service, or a cash total nothing too steep. 2 million credits worth of booty a head or 20 years service whichever they accrue first.

You could go higher if you want them to risk everything to get out of it quickly on a risky job, or spread it over several decent jobs.

I'd like to add in my 2 creds that the random cargo generated by that program is ludicrous...

[garhkal]

I would go time vice cash.. say a year and a day... or like the dwarves in icewind dale (forgotten realms) do, 5 years and a day..
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[notmalcolypse]

Yeah, the randomness of the random cargo generator is pretty extreme.

First Mate - "So, yeah, we've got a tank, four dozen space cows, 800 cyber eyes, 24 assorted slaves, and eleven tons of bottled water, right?"

Captain - "Yep, that's everything. You get the ship started and I'll see if this guy with a crate of gems wants to send 'em with us."

It was a very useful way to start an argument that started a game, though.

[Hood]

I've always favored the idea of good roleplaying over good rolls, but you can always adjust rolls to players who are clever, show initiative, etc.
And why do they even have to pay these guys off? You know one of your players is gonna think about bolting as soon as they get a chance, plus having a gang of pirates after you can always make for great roleplaying down the road.

[notmalcolypse]

Sorry, I should have covered all that stuff in the original post, but it was long and I wasn't paying enough attention.

The party will have to pay them back because the ship they has no hyperdrive, the Void Wings are going to send along extra crew that will outnumber the players including an assassin droid that is pretty scary, they'd have two gangs of pirates after them because the Void Wings would get word to their old gang that the reason they're running around alive and free is because they were caught and talked to the authorities, and because the pirates will offer them an opportunity once the debt is paid to join their fleet and get all the benefits of belonging to a huge pirate gang.

Or, I guess if they want exciting lives they can run...

[garhkal]

I can still see some groups trying to get out of it.. which would make for very interesting times. Not only would they have both the void wings on their @$$ for running without paying, but the other pirate gang. AND the authorities for associating/being pirates...
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Bren]

Some thoughts

[garhkal]

Another way to help keep them inline is use some sort of drug. If they don't get a periodic booster, it makes them weak, and THEY don't know what it is (for ideas, see what happened in the film Kiss the Girls).

Optionally some sort of crainal bomb. if too far from a signal, it goes boom (10d or more inside their head, so it ignores armor and other measures to reduce its damage. If they try to remove it have it be a high (A) medicine roll to do so without setting it off OR giving them brain damage.. say in the 25+ region.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Bren]

Drug addiction and cranial bombs seem like they could be interesting and undoing them would be a major object of the campaign if the players are on board with the idea.

However, if the players are not on board it seems an incredibly heavy handed method of railroading them.

The drug addiction sounds like what was done to the Jem'Hadar in Star Trek and the cranial bombs sound like something from a futuristic prison movie scene with Arnie, I think maybe the early part of Running Man.

[notmalcolypse]

I'm wanting the players to be able to get out from under the debt in 4-6 sessions.

My goal for the campaign is that the characters will end up as famous pirates in their own right. I hope that they impress the Void Wings, pay them off, and fly under their flag for a while until they end up with a serviceable fleet of their own.

I'm not really including the numerous pirates going with them to overawe them, they need pilots and gunners and engineers and marines. The party will basically be the ones serving as marines. They get sent in to take the majority of the risk, and the pirates are along to make sure that they get to the target to take that risk.

The assassin droid is there to intimidate the players, but he's also the pirates main boarder. He's much more efficient than any dozen other pirates at killing any opposition they may come across, so why risk their lives when they can put him on point and just slap the survivors in chains after he's swept aside the opposition?

I want the party to be under the pirates shadow, but not under their thumb. The pirates will point them at a ship and say "sic 'em", and the party gets to figure out how to do it and live.

It'll be good practice for when they're ready to cast their own shadow.

[garhkal]

So is this a dark side sort of campaign??
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Bren]

I guess this actually echoes garhkal's question, but when you say

[notmalcolypse]

To garhkal: yes, very much about being the bad guys.

At least that's my take on it, the party may have other ideas. Two of my players have discussed Firefly with me while talking about the game, so they may want to be good people doing illegal things.

It will take some further discussion to get us all on the same page.


To Bren: You've hit the nail on the head.

At least for the first few sessions, I don't want the players to throw any big curve balls at me. It's been a few years since I've run D6, so I want to get my feet wet without requiring the diving bell, scuba gear, small nuclear submarine and little inflatable water wings that my players usually force me to have ready to deal with their chaotic methods.