Jedi Campaign and Training ideas

[Tythos]

Hello everyone! So, this is my first post. Haven't RPG'd in too long, and haven't played SW D6 in even longer. So, hoping that will change shortly.

I'm looking for help with Jedi campaign ideas, and any cool training ideas you've used in your games.

Story so far, plus me asking for help:
1. This will probably be a 'duet' style game (1 GM, 1 PC). At least, to start.
2. Looking to start off the Jedi as younglings, do an adventure per year of their life until Padawan age, then they are assigned Jedi Masters (or, however that works...)
3. Jedi take the Padawans with them on various (possibly related) missions
4. Not sure what era I want - leaning towards a 'the Sith are secretly gathering' time period
5. Trying to mix up the adventures, so would like some diplomacy, mystery-solving, combat, healing, etc. In fact, any ideas that are non-combat oriented would be really interesting.

Really, I am open to any/all ideas!

Personal note: These Forums are amazing! I was reading thru a few threads, and it's truly impressive how everyone here has kept SW D6 alive. Hell, and even improved it significantly. It's like a digital time capsule into my gaming life, years ago. Keep up the good work!

[Bren]

Welcome to the Rancor Pit Tythos.

1. In my experience, having played a lot of duet style Star Wars D6, this will work fine - especially for Jedi. It allows you to avoid most of the concerns about balance between Force users and the non-force users and allows a strong focus on moral concerns and ethical behavior for the Jedi without having to worry about that being dull for the non-Jedis. One word of caution, you need to be very careful with how you set the opposition and with the player's ability to craft tactics and to think and brainstorm what to do next.

RPGnet has a column devoted to Duet style play. I think some of the articles are helpful for the GM when planning for that play style.

RE: The opposition - since there is only one player (and that probably means only one PC) there isn't the extra support and ability to have multiple PCs using FPs to help survive difficult encouters. NPCs can help (if they don't steal the show) but they can't substitute for an active and creative player. So you need to be a bit more careful not to overwhelm the PC. Also a string of unlucky die rolls can really frustrate the player as well as add to the difficulty of his or her character getting through the adventure. On the plus side, you don't need to worry so much about a single PC gaining CPs and FPs.

RE: Tactics and Brainstorming - this is very player dependent, but it is easy for a single player to get stuck. Much more so than in a multiplayer game where one player can spark ideas off of another and can test ideas against the other players points of view. Even though there may be other NPC characters it is mostly up to the one player to do all the thinking. So you may need to be nicer in the sense of giving more hints or useful suggestions from the NPCs. But beware NPCs who steal the scene from the PC. Even if the PC is the youngling or the padawan and the NPC is a knight or master - the adventure should focus on the PC's choices not the actions of the NPC masters.

2. One adventure a year for Younglings increasing to more frequent adventures for Padawan's sounds really cool. This allows the player to create the history for his Jedi in play. I recently acquired Jedi Path by Daniel Wallace. It does a nice job of pulling together a lot of the EU material on the Jedi. Most of that is available elsewhere but this looks like a handy resource for a Jedi focused campaign.

Got to go, may have more to say later.

May the Force be with you...always.

[Bren]

...Continued

3. It would help to know a bit more about what you are planning.

• Is the PC the Padawan, the knight/master Jedi, or both?
  
• Are you running one player in a Duet and thinking of adding players later or are you running separate Duets for more than one player?
  
• If separate Duets for multiple players, can you run the same basic scenario for each player or are they likely to talk or share information?

For the initial meetings the Padawan will probably be expected to observe more and act less – sort of being seen but not heard. The adventure may occur when the situation counters that expectation – something happens to the Jedi master, there are too many activities to handle them all together so the Padawan and Master may have to split up to tackle separate activities, some other NPCs try to interact directly with the Padawan.

One option is to have the Master deal with the leaders of the society they are interacting with while allowing the Padawan to interact with the lower ranks: maids, butlers, guards, chauffeurs, wait staff, droids, etc. This could provide opportunities to get information that the Master can use or may just revolve around the Padawan having to learn how to get along with non-Jedi (new Padawan’s probably have little experience with beings outside the Temple) or maybe the Padawan is asked by someone in the lower ranks for help with his or her lesser problems.

4. I think starting in the era of 'the Sith are secretly gathering' sounds good. That will give the Youngling some experience with the Republic prior to the Clone Wars or Sith Wars (depending on the time period) and then when more experienced the big battles are available for further play.

5. Here are a few non-combat ideas.
Diplomacy: Help to settle a dispute between two warring parties – either on the same planet or nearby planets/systems. The dispute could be over how to share scare resources, one side wanting the other’s territory to expand into, xenophobia, anger over past wrongs, religious disagreement, clash between a militaristic culture and a peaceful culture, clash between two militaristic cultures, or even a clash between two peaceful cultures – who may war through proxy either using mercenaries or using computer simulations like old show Star Trek’s “A Taste of Armageddon.”

Natural Disaster: Helping out a people or planet that has suffered a natural disaster. Examples include: asteroid storm, solar flare, draught, famine, flood, crop blight, pestilence, plague etc.

Here’s a tip for more ideas. Steal missions from Star Trek. Every few episodes of the old show and TNG they were off helping someone. Much of the same occurs on the other series as well.

[Tythos]

This is great, thanks Bren!

More background info:
- the plan is to start out as a Duet-style campaign, and then add other PC's later on if there is interest.
- The PC will start of as a Youngling, with the 2 main NPCs, and they will grow up together at the Temple, or the Chu'Unthor, or whatever. Then advance to Padawan, then Knights.
- in some of the older eras, Jedi Masters had 1-3 students at a time. I like this idea, as it is convenient for my story idea. BUT... I might just have 1 Master, 2 Knights, and their 3 Padawans on an extended assignment on some planet in a tough situation
- There will definitely be more NPC's, if only to help drop hints or for comic relief. I'm a big fan of droids as NPCs. they RARELY steal the show from PCs, and can be very useful.
- i like the diplomacy & natural disaster ideas, thanks!
- thanks for the heads up on Jedi Path. I'll take a look!
- I don't know much about the whole Youngling/Padawan/Jedi transition process, so I'll need to research that a bit. any info is appreciated, of course. Are they Younglings until...what, age 10-12 for humans? Then Padawans until mid- to late-teens? Something like that?
- I like the '1 adventure per year' too, thanks; I think it adds a lot to the PCs attachment to the character. (a good example: the Harry Potter series)
- I figure by the time the PC & main NPC ("GM's PC") are late teens, they should be well on their way to awesomeness. I figure 8-10 mini-adventures, then on to big, galactic stuff.
- Hmmm, a thought! I like the idea of the PC spending a few years helping a planet rebuild, after a terrible war/quake/hurricane/whatever. Like a Peace Corps-style story arc... and then they stumble across something Sith-related...

Anyhow, the feedback is much appreciated! Would love to hear any other ideas you or the forum community has on this.

Thanks,
Tythos

[Downstrike]

Kind of Legend of the five rings in nature but the young Jedi is at some big party with lots of important and looking for marriage type people. The jedI doesn’t know that there is a poetry contest, a philosophical debate, and /or a simple painting contest each winning you one hour to try to woo the kings heir to the throne [princess if the player is playing a hetero male, prince if the player if playing a hetro female, and so on…. also assuming species compatibility].

Well the player smokes the contest! No matter how bad the player sucks, the king or the panel of judges or whoever thinks the player is the greatest thing since blue milk. Looks like quality time with the heir to the throne.

Hooks:

* What does the heir think of the player and their horrible/arousing poetry?

* Can the player use this to speed up the diplomatic mission?

* What if the King really wants the character to marry the heir….like tonight?

* If there is a panel of judges, is there something political going on that had them choose an outsider as the winner?

* Who else thinks the player sucks and that the contest was rigged?

* The most important question is who lost the contest and how badly do they want revenge?


I should have noted that you can change King for CEO or whatever title you want.


Different idea but similar setting is your classic murder whodunit but the royal guards are there to “arrest that man!” when the player figures it out. Does that help win or lose favor with the court.

Also in this setting, what is the movie where the art thief burns the original painting so he can sell the forgery as the original?

There was an episode of Hyperdrive where the big bosses teenage brat kid is off in a VW microbus following the grateful dead or whatever and the player has to take her into custody and get her back to daddy. The game should start after she is in custody and she pulls shenanigans and gets help from hippy boyfriends, screams that she is being accosted to uninformed law enforcement after taking the players ID and she slips drugs in your players drinks for humorous effects and while she escapes one last time in front of the big boss.


Cheers
DS

[Tythos]

Thanks for the ideas, guys! Much appreciated.

All the major stuff is set for the campaign... mostly.

If anyone has other Jedi adventure ideas, feel free to post!

Thanks,
T

[Fallon Kell]

One thing I've learned about duet play, is that you need to give your player's character reliable friends to form a party around the PC, unless (possibly) he/she is playing an extremely well rounded character. For this reason, I give all my recurring NPCs (heros, neutrals, and villains) stats on par with a the PC and improve them at the same rate. With a non-force using PC, this gives the game a "little player, big galaxy" feel. Probably less so with a force-user, once he/she comes of age.
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Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier

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