A Couple of Campaign Ideas, Maybe

[Aluco]

I had a couple of ideas today that I thought could make a good RPG story line. I'm kind of testing interest here.

First idea: Wookiee resistance!

You are a Wookiee resisting Imperial conscription; or maybe a smaller scale situation where you are resisting a Trandoshan hunting party.

Second Idea: Padowan stowaways!

You've escaped Order 66 by stowing away on a commercial freighter. Where will you find yourselves? How will you survive?

This second one I tried once long ago, but couldn't get it off the ground through the metagaming and PC interest.

I don't know.... The first one sounded fun when I was thinking about it at work today. Can I bring myself to run one?

Maybe I'm just hoping to see some new action on the boards [/shrug]

[coldskier0320]

The first one may fit in better with an ongoing campaign (as opposed to a one-off) if the PCs are members of a rebel cell tasked with landing undetected on Kashyyyk, making contact with the wookiee resistance, and helping them evade capture by imps and the trandos working for them and to set up a hidden base for their cell. You could even have these allies return in a later situation to help out the PCs when they find themselves in a pinch.

I really like the second idea as PbP idea, as there's action from the first round, and there's no real set endgame...it provides a plausible reason for PCs to leave, join, or do both...and it lands nicely in the "dark times" one of the few remaining gray-ish areas in the SW canon, for those GMs that are concerned with such things. A mized party would be very workable asthe force users would be all but completely unable to use the force in any overt way, and in many situations with special jedi hunters, even their presence would be a liability for the entire group. Something like a holocron might serve as a great GM tool as well.

Great ideas!

[Grimace]

Yeah, I actually like the idea of the 2nd one more than the first. Maybe it's because you use the term "conscription" and I don't see the Empire conscripting Wookiees at all. Putting them into slavery, yes. Conscripting, no.

But I do like the idea of the padawans having to survive in a newly hostile time. Lots of roleplay potential in that one!

[Aluco]

Originally posted by Grimace
Yeah, I actually like the idea of the 2nd one more than the first. Maybe it's because you use the term "conscription" and I don't see the Empire conscripting Wookiees at all. Putting them into slavery, yes. Conscripting, no.

You're absolutely right, Grimace. It's not really appropriate of me to convolute those two ideas. In fact, I'd have a very hard time running a campaign from the other direction -- that being a group of Imperials sent to Kashyyyk to abduct Wookiees (eww.... gives me kind of creepy shivers).

I suppose that might be why I used a way-overly-unemphatic term; one that dodges the reality of evil completely.

Originally posted by Grimace
But I do like the idea of the padawans having to survive in a newly hostile time. Lots of roleplay potential in that one!

The problem I ran into with this one was that potential PCs always want to know so many specifics about a campaign in order to develop a character "appropriate" for it. So -- in this case --one ends up with everyone taking a level in Scout, Scoundrel, or emphasizing survival-type skills and feats. I guess I worry that when there's "an app for that" in a roleplay story --sometimes-- the problem solving that's fun to read/watch could take a backseat.

On a side note: I'm not totally reluctant to GM another game soon. I'm kind of hoping to play in one, though, too if anyone has an inclination to commit to something .

[Grimace]

Well, maybe this is where you'd have to use subterfuge. Tell the players you're running an adventure where some padawans are going on a trip with their masters to work more on their training. If they want specifics, tell them that it was be an adventure of physical and mental challenges, where they must learn to temper their own desires to take the quicker and easier path down the Dark Side. That way they don't think they're getting into a strictly survival based adventure.

Then, when you start the adventure, use the "In Media Res" method and explain about Order 66 taking place a day before their trip. Explain how their masters were called away for an emergency and then cut down by forces of evil. Explain how, as they all decided to go seek the guidance of a wise master, they saw him cut down by Anakin and the evil forces began to attack the Jedi temple and kill all of the other padawans.

Start the game at that point, where they basically see the Jedi temple in flames, sirens are all around them, soldiers are hunting for them, and the news networks are broadcasting that all Jedi, young and old, are enemies of the state. They have to figure out how to survive and you've got a group of players that have characters not necessarily geared towards "survival" in this sort of situation.

You'll have characters that are much more well-rounded and variable instead of every padawan being built for the purpose of surviving the fall of the Jedi.