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TOPIC: Edge of the Empire, etc. Discussion

Edge of the Empire, etc. Discussion 1 year 2 weeks ago #59130

  • Borommakot
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Not sure what the best place for this is, so it ended up here.

Anyone here played in any of the Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars RPG systems, Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, or Force and Destiny?

A friend of ours ran a campaign that lasted about 6 months last year, and it was a blast. We've been dying to get back into it, and finally got a group together. There's six of us, five PC and I volunteered to GM. It's gonna be my first time doing so. I was actually wondering if anyone here who's experienced it would be willing to take a look at my campaign notes. I'd been struggling with ideas, but I couldn't sleep last night and ended up brainstorming this.

Any input is greatly appreciated!

PC notes:
•Each player allowed a single place on the ship to keep private/hidden belongings

•One player wants to have background involvement; needs to find ways to separate herself from the group both to receive intel and pass it to the group. Also needs to use hiding place on ship to store it. Obligation must involve responsibility to Rebels.


NPC notes:
•Nemesis- Unaud
Initially uses minions, shotgun, explosives? Steals lightsabers from dead Jedi

•Antagonist- Cruach Crom
Using slaves to build fleet factory/battle station. Seeking Sith artifacts. Dark Side user.

•Droid double agent- tailing Rathma

•Sabot- cyborg bounty hunter who hires team

•Rathma's contact- relays her intel to team to maintain her cover

•Gungan black market dealer

•Corrupt politician

Abduction (main plot) notes:

•Anonymous request brings them together.

•Need to track down missing colonists

•Possible capture early on, for escape mission

•Client has a contact who is killed before the group can meet him

•contact turns out to be Jedi

•Nemesis uses slug thrower shotgun, and icy blue lightsabers, kills Jedi contact

•Once defeated, opportunity to keep sabers, sell, or turn over to rebel cell in exchange for reduced obligation

•Led astray by false contact (don't tell player) and set up for terrorist act

•Droid betrays them

•Defeating false contact leads to system where colonists are taken

•Discover space station

•Options to infiltrate/assault directly



Misc. missions interspersed throughout campaign:

•Help Sabot get revenge
–Remote security spikes

•Win a bike/starship race
–Ship upgrade

•Look for jobs
–Camaraderie

•Help out freedom fighters
–Weapons/upgrades


Regarding that second player character note: one of the players wants her backstory to tie into the campaign, where she works for a Rebel cell to sort of guide this "A-team" toward Rebel interests. Are there any foreseeable issues with that? She won't ever know what's going to happen before the rest of the team, but her character may be used as a vehicle to get them intel/missions. Again, any feedback is welcome.

Besides that, if anyone wants to share any fun/cool stories of experiences they've had with this (or other) Star Wars RPGs, I'm sure they'd be fun to read!
Last Edit: 1 year 2 weeks ago by Borommakot.
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Edge of the Empire, etc. Discussion 1 year 2 weeks ago #59178

  • Artair
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I would be careful with making one character a special snowflake. If everyone in the group is aware and ok with it OOC and it doesn't give that character any special treatment it's fine to do. You just want to make sure not to create a story around one character and its followers. The people playing the followers might take issue. The good old it's no fun to play with the DMs girlfriend as a player rule... (I know it can be fine but it usually is not)

You know your group the best. I'd look for ways to balance the scales.

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Edge of the Empire, etc. Discussion 1 year 2 weeks ago #59225

  • Borommakot
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No, no special treatment. The character's backstory would just tie in to the main campaign, instead of having side-mission tie-ins like the other characters. Other than that, they're basically just (anonymously, and controlled by GM) giving the team missions, at which point they won't have any more info than the other characters. I'm actually planning to expose the character's involvement part way through the campaign, in hopes of creating a dramatic sort of test of trust for the team. Because of that, I was wanting to keep the players in the dark (OOC) about this backstory. Do you think it'll be bad if they aren't made aware before hand?
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Edge of the Empire, etc. Discussion 1 year 2 weeks ago #59242

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Just some other thoughts to do with what you will.

In that case i would make the characters all aware that the orders are being relayed theough her.

Maybe make the true name and location of the source of the missions a secret ( for future plot twists.)

Sure they can all think they are furthering the rebal cause, but are they really just being played? Send them on a questionable "grey area" mission or two to throw the sources motives into question and make figuring out the source of the missions a goal of the team as well. But also make them understand the source will dissapear if it feels in danger or its location becomes known so they need to be sly about it.

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Last Edit: 1 year 2 weeks ago by Artair.
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Edge of the Empire, etc. Discussion 1 year 2 weeks ago #59253

  • Kouri
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It's your game, so you're free to set your own timeline and use as much canon and/or Legends as you see fit, but these games usually take place in the gap between ANH and ESB, so it personally feels off hearing about dead Jedi and a Lightsaber collector. If you *are* running this in the typical Fantasy Flight setting, I'd recommend moving away from actual Jedi NPCs (though Force Sensitivity is still a thing and can definitely be taken advantage of). Consider other force-sensitive ideologies like the Barak-Do that might've avoided the Empire's immediate sites.

If you've got Force-Sensitive PCs that want to become Jedi, consider making use of the Church of the Force - a group of non-force-sensitives uncovering lots of Jedi history that the Empire's trying to keep burried. Lor San Tekka, the old man from the beginning of Ep 7, was a devout member and active around this time frame, aidiing the New Republic with lost information on Outer Fringe planets and seeking Jedi artifacts.

As for GM-ing, rule number 1 is everyone has fun. Obviously, don't let players derail your story, but also don't be so rigid that they can't put their own spin on things. You're not creating a story for them to play, everyone at the table is creating that story. Also don't hand out Experience too easily. I've used Gameshark enough in my time to know that certain games are less fun when you over-level to early on.
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Edge of the Empire, etc. Discussion 1 year 2 weeks ago #59255

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Kouri wrote:
It's your game, so you're free to set your own timeline and use as much canon and/or Legends as you see fit, but these games usually take place in the gap between ANH and ESB, so it personally feels off hearing about dead Jedi and a Lightsaber collector.
I envisioned this taking place an indeterminate time pre-ANH, so between the rise of the Empire and the destruction of the first Death Star. Is there anything about the setting/rules that would actively work against that?
If you *are* running this in the typical Fantasy Flight setting, I'd recommend moving away from actual Jedi NPCs (though Force Sensitivity is still a thing and can definitely be taken advantage of). Consider other force-sensitive ideologies like the Barak-Do that might've avoided the Empire's immediate sites. If you've got Force-Sensitive PCs that want to become Jedi, consider making use of the Church of the Force - a group of non-force-sensitives uncovering lots of Jedi history that the Empire's trying to keep burried. Lor San Tekka, the old man from the beginning of Ep 7, was a devout member and active around this time frame, aidiing the New Republic with lost information on Outer Fringe planets and seeking Jedi artifacts.
No actual Jedi NPCs planned, at least not for now. The character mentioned in the notes will have been killed off before the party has a chance to meet them. The other Force sensitive NPC will be a dark sider of no particular affiliation. I'll look at the Barak-Do; may be able to hammer out an origin for him from that. But I'm fairly sure one of the PCs will be wanting to try to become a Jedi, so thanks for the reminder about the Church of the Force. That'll be handy.
As for GM-ing, rule number 1 is everyone has fun. Obviously, don't let players derail your story, but also don't be so rigid that they can't put their own spin on things. You're not creating a story for them to play, everyone at the table is creating that story. Also don't hand out Experience too easily. I've used Gameshark enough in my time to know that certain games are less fun when you over-level to early on.
Helpful advice. I'm pretty clueless at this point about how to handle XP, but I definitely want to maintain the challenge. I'm definitely open to spins and twists on the story. I just hope I can handle giving them new things on the fly.
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Edge of the Empire, etc. Discussion 1 year 2 weeks ago #59344

  • Kouri
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If you need any fluff to pad out the story, every book has modular encounters in back you can use to keep the story moving. Force & Destiny book also has stats on Inquisitors, which might be useful for the Rebels-era it sounds like you're in.

Empire's still actively hunting down any Force Sensitives in the Core Worlds (it's easier to get away with this sort of thing in the Outer Rim), so I make sure to warn the players about this if they don't want to gain any unwanted attention. Saber only come out as a last resort if they're anywhere public (though they get to cut loose when alone in the wilds). Blasters concealed anywhere civilized, lest the local law enforcement get involved.


As you get to learn your players and their expectations, you can play off that. No problems adding challenges, but don't give them dead ends. A while back, I started a new campaign with the F&D Beginner Game, except everything was tweaked to follow the Core Rules, rather than the Beginner Rules. Characters were generated accordingly.

Well it gets to the part where the players are caught in a trap, and the only way out is to use their Force abilities. One player's been through this campaign before with the Beginner Rules and knows it's as simple as using his Force Enhance to jump out of the pit he's in. So he invests the XP into Enhance - enough to get the Jump/Leap enhancement, and tries to jump out.

So I play this up in the description. Walker's feeling blood rushing to his legs. There's so much energy coursing through his body. He feels - STRONG. Aims for the surface, he jumps harder than he's ever jumped before.

And totally misses the upper ledge. Jack winds up slipping on the ice and leaps forward, slamming into the icy wall. (The base leap ability only gives players a boost to horizontal distance. He'll need to level it up more to jump higher). At this point, the player's a bit disappointed that he can't just jump out.

But he slams so hard into the wall of this pit that the ice starts to crack. A fissure forms, a small hole opens up and a rodent scurries out. Next turn, Jack investigates and realizes the wall's actually pretty thin, and there's apparently a set of burrows behind the wall. Pulls out his blaster and shoots a wider hole in the side of the pit, using the burrows to pull himself out of the trap.

--

I'd spent maybe a week going over the encounter and setting up the maps in Roll 20. Also familiar enough with the player and his character to know he'd try to jump out - so I setup that bit of disappointment with an alternate way out. One of the other players was set to use Force Move to pull a rope down. One other wasn't Force Sensitive at all and had to wait for one of the other guys to get out and help him up. As long as the story can advance, yer good.
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Edge of the Empire, etc. Discussion 1 year 2 weeks ago #59356

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That's great help, Kouri. Maps are actually something I was wondering about. Did you use one of these for making them? https://wiki.roll20.net/Useful_links_for_mapping
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Edge of the Empire, etc. Discussion 1 year 2 weeks ago #59359

  • Kouri
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Beginner game came with a few maps that I scanned into the computer and blew up enough for the tokens to walk around in. I actually wound up signing up for a premium account just to use the dynamic lighting in the old Jedi Temple map so specific areas would be hidden from players until they figured out how to access them.

EDIT: Also, for you secret-intel character, have the player bring a tablet and put a Data Pad in her character's inventory. You can text her messages like new intel and or mission parameters that she has to relay to the rest of the party, as well as any character-specific secrets she'll need to incorporate into her end of the story. Every time the pad *beeps*, the group will know there's a new mission update - and if it develops a habit of beeping with no new public info, you might be able to force some suspicion on the rest of the team.

Also, yeah, as mentioned above, this might set her apart from the group as a "special" character, so make sure the other characters get their moment of awesome. She might be relaying the objectives, but maybe the other characters can come up with the actual plan to tackle those objective. If you've got high-Int players that aren't so great at combat, add some complicated computer locks that need slicing or a mechanical device that needs repair to advance so that they get a chance to save the day as well.
Last Edit: 1 year 2 weeks ago by Kouri.
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