Starting a 1e Classic campaign Sandbox

[peelseel2]

I have finally decided to play Star Wars again after about a 30-year hiatus. And we never played it much back in the day. We had the first edition rulebook, and having come from Traveller, we thought it lacked a lot after some play. Some years ago, I found the REUP edition and thought it was the cat's @$$ for Star Wars, and after reading it, I came to like the system. But we never played. I ended up giving away my REUP print. I was in a game store a couple of years back, picked up the 1e reprint on a whim, and dove into it. About the same time, I found Star Wars Classic Adventures. Then after reading the thread STAR WARS FIRST EDITION: A LOVE STORY I decided that I wanted to play First Edition, so I printed off 5 copies of the Classic Adventures for my players. Although Classic changed a couple of rules, I could just change the few back to match 1e.

I did not want to go into a campaign with all the baggage of lore, but wanted the ability to pick and choose what I used. I love the Bad Batch, Andor, Rogue One, Tales of the Jedi, and The Clone Wars. I love the Mandalorian and Ashoka too, they provide great inspiration for adventure, but are later than I want in the timeline. Because I wanted to selectively bring in lore we would use, I wanted the players to know that this is an alternate Star Wars universe, so I'm calling it Mythic Star Wars as a differentiator. I wanted to use droid armies, clone troopers, first-generation Stormtroopers, and the fledgling Empire, while avoiding, for now, Jedi and force users.

I wanted an area relatively untouched by cannon so I could feel free to have my canvas, in case we brought in more lore. Where applicable, lore can stand in, and we can bring it in at the time. When something contradictory is brought in, we are not sweating it.

I decided to set it up on the spiral arm at the end of the Corellian Run, wild space by some maps. It is set about a year after Order 66. This is an area that was too far out of the way to be touched by the Clone Wars.

Here is the Storyboard so far:
Current Situation
This Story takes place in The Far Spiral, or The Void Reach Spiral, or simply Void Reach as it is known locally, an area much like The Outer Rim, except even more isolated. The time is right after the Clone Wars. The Galactic Republic is becoming, or is now, The Galactic Empire.

Traveling to The Void Reach is arduous; getting there is not easy, either through a backwater area in the Outer Rim or across a great void. Making Micro jumps across the void can be very time-consuming since no hyperspace lanes exist and it is not reliably charted. Traveling through The Outer Rim is fraught with less hyperspace danger, as hyperspace routes exist, but it is also time-consuming. This leaves the area as a Galactic backwater, home of warring polities, self-interested Mega-Corporations, and pirates. Influence from the former Galactic Republic was feeble, being held to advisory, bank, and technological transfers in return for rare materials shipped through The Outer Rim.

The Imperial Intelligence Services is being extensively expanded and has received massive funding from the Emporer. Their interest in The Far Spiral is resource extraction, sowing discord, and strife, thus laying the groundwork for the potential Imperial or surrogate occupation of exploitable worlds. Due to an inability to project effective power to The Far Spiral, their strategy is exploiting current rivalries and selectively picking winners. They need some good proxies.

Right after the end of the Clone Wars, a Director of the IIS, Vinicious Opetus, has been tasked with bringing Imperial influence into The Far Spiral. To this end operation Chaos Rider was born.

One of Operation Chaos Riders' goals was to surreptitiously secure a large amount of military equipment for use by proxy forces. To this end, Director Opetus started procuring and transferring soon-to-be-destroyed Clone Wars military material, from the separatists and republic to a little-known system on the edge of The Far Spiral void. In that system, during The Galactic Republic, there was a large scientific base that was abandoned shortly before the Clone Wars due to budget cuts. This has made a perfect, out-of-the-way place to organize the mobile manufacturing and shipyard pods to handle the influx of materials. It also provides a great training ground for proxy forces.

The Paraxyl Trade Union is a confederation of Trade unions In the Paraxyl Sector. The Corellian Run ends in the Paraxyl Sector, at the beginning of the Far Spiral. This area remained neutral during the Clone Wars due to its remoteness and the size of the Paraxyl Trade Union Navy (PTUN). It has an independent banking branch, mining operations, industrial operations, and trade unions. This was being developed through trade agreements with the Galactic Republic and was considered a client state of the Galactic Republic. However, it was very shrewd in negotiations with the Galactic Republic and was able to grow its independence. When the Clone Wars erupted, it had enough power to maintain and exercise its independence.

PTU has control over 25 worlds in the Void Reach. Its navy is very strong. Its intelligence service is extensive in the Void Reach. It is very active in subterfuge and working with independent polities to secure the PTU.

The rest of the void reach consists of about 45 independent worlds. PTUN is situated at the head of the spiral, and independent systems are stretched along the coreward side of the spiral arm, next to the void. A couple of prominent independent pirate groups have emerged over time. These generally have not had great power, being a nuisance to the PTUN and independent polities.

The two notable pirate groups are the Slynd Raiders and Poul Syndicate. They have mostly survived by raiding independent worlds along the coreward void rim, running protection rackets, and trafficking illegal goods. The Poul Syndicate has recently had a schism and was taken over by Ourth Vendis Hun, a particularly shrewd and tactful Draethos.

The Poul Syndicate is the only group with a reliable route to crossing the void.

Ancient History
Long ago, a race called the Nephil originated from this area. They resembled Giant Humans. Force-sensitive and incredibly intelligent, they mastered Hyperdrives and then Hypergates, colonizing the Entire Void Reach. In the mists of time, their culture disappeared. But not before making servant races that persist to this day. Scattered across worlds in the Void Reach and beyond, lie the Megalithic ruins of their civilization.

Star Systems
Jountier
A system along the inner void edge that has 9 Planets, and 4 planetoids. The whole system is uninhabitable but is home to several mining operations, both legal and illegal.
Shiva
A system along the inner void edge that suffered a great catastrophe sometime in its distant past. The third and fourth planets were turned into asteroid fields through unknown technological destruction. There are a total of 7 planets in the system, the first is a small rocky planet that orbits close to the star. The second is much like Venus and is named Herald of Doom. The third and fourth planets have been destroyed. The fifth and sixth planets are gas giants being Saturn-like and Neptune-like. The 7th planet is much like Pluto, being a small body that was captured by the system and has an eccentric orbit. The Star is a G2V. The Shiva system is home to the free port of Void Wreak, a derelict mega-ship that drifted into the system and is now in close orbit around the second planet.

The prologue adventure starts with the players being slaves on an illegal gas giant mining operation in the Jountier system, controlled by a small mining firm that recently had an influx of equipment. The base has a contingent of Vulture Droids, along with Spider Droids to help protect the new to them mobile mining mega platform. A contingent of mercenaries was hired by the company to act as guards. The characters all met due to circumstance, came up with an escape plan, and launched it when a Raiding party infiltrated the platform to rescue their cellmate, an accountant. In the action, the players stole a YT-2400 and got away with the raiding party and the accountant.

Here is the scroll we made. When you click on Episode 1, you need to click on the Mythic Star Wars, Adventures in the Void Reach, Episode 1 to get the scroll going. We plan on updating the website with characters, etc. That is the plan at least......

https://machomeassist.tplinkdns.com/

That was the scroll to begin Episode I, which has been played. I will be making another scroll to start Episode II.

The free port of Void Wreak (yes, it is AI-generated. I am on a no-budget situation.)
https://machomeassist.tplinkdns.com/pictures/Free_port_Void_Wreak.png

We are looking at, over the Christmas Holiday, doing some 1 shots set in the Void Reach. Two different gaming groups in the area coming together to play, as both group's schedules over the holidays are wonked, and we both lack players. The other group has never played Star Wars (as none of my players had either previous to Episodes I and II). We are hoping to stream the sessions.

[garhkal]

Sounds like it will be fun... Any idea what the group's gonna be like (characters wise)?
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[jtanzer]

Here's some resources that might help you with running a sandbox. While it primarily uses D&D as an example, the principles are largely system-agnostic, so they should be applicable to SWD6.

Edit: My primary concern about your campaign is about the adventure structure. From where I'm sitting, the way the modules (if you choose to use them) aren't set up for sandboxing - they're set up to be read and then put on a shelf. That, combined with your stated campaign goal, makes me wonder if there's sufficient content to fill a sandbox - more specifically the number of hooks pointing to different adventure types. A lot of times I've seen "sandboxes" that don't have many hooks because the default action is whatever the plotline pointed to. This was actually something the Minos Campaign from GG6 did very well: the main plotline didn't occur back to back and there was a default action (trade) that filled the gaps. The PCs could very well not know what was going on until well into the actual campaign. That's not to say the Minos Campaign is good: it has some (obvious) flaws, however it's a lot better than every other WEG adventure or the Voyager-at-home (i.e. Darkstryder) campaign.

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The best villians are the ones the PCs create.

[Whill]

peelseel2, welcome to the Pit, and thanks for sharing!
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[DougRed4]

Welcome to the Pit, peelseel2!

I think your campaign premise sounds exciting and intriguing!

My own campaign was originally more sandboxy, and now that we're in the Tapani Sector it is less so. I think a sandbox works when there are enough interesting things and plot hooks going on that your players have choices and feel like their decisions matter. I used to give my players (through their Information Broker) like a dozen 'leads' (rumors and potential plot hooks) and would find out which one they wanted to tackle next.
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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