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Meridian
2009-10-12, 01:41 PM
Hello. I've been planning a Star Wars-themed game for my group, and I've got the basic plot together, as well as some concepts on the NPC's. However, as I am not that much of a Star Wars sage (I prefer fantasy oftentimes), I decided to ask around a bit if this sounds logical and could work.

First of all, I've decided to set the game on an unspecified age after the events of the episode 6. The Sith are rising again, and the game will include a lot of fast-paced, storytelling-heavy action sequences, but I'm also hoping to include some deeper character developement. Anyhow, here's the basic set:

A new Sith Conclave has been formed in the distant planet of Morigoth. The leader is an unknown Sith lord who calls himself Darth Devouris; he is only seen as a man shrouded black Sith robes, and is known to be extremely charismatic, gathering many followers from Morigoth's native inhabitants. He isn't seen much; he's supposed to be the smart villain who gives the players a hard time, and actually forces them to play smart if they don't want to get killed; assassins and such are sent to neutralize player characters silently, instead of hordes of thugs or poorly programmed combat droids.

The players are hired by a rich businessman to investigate the new cult forming on Morigoth, and attempt to steal an ancient relic that they have been rumoured to excavate. Also, the Jedi Council asks their allies from previous encounters with rogue Jedi (a bounty hunter character) to help find out more about this strange conclave. He, of course, gets his friends with him, and off we go.

Darth Devouris' followers:

Darth Voidis, a human Sith who lost his arms as a child. He is a powerful force-user, and killed many a Jedi before being found by Darth Devouris, who took him as an apprentice. He fights by floating in the air and controlling a multitude of lightsabers whom he took from the Jedi he killed. He doesn't talk much, due to a severe trauma he experienced as a child when he lost both his arms from shoulders onward.

Darth Devastis, a Sith warrior who is a human from the savage jungle-planet of Dronok. Devastis is covered by red and black tribal tattoos, and wears an outfit similar to those used by the Jedi, only black. Although he is from a primal tribe, he is smart, and has become well-used to high technology and is actually quite a sophisticated person. He is actually supposed to talk to the player characters, pleading them to see things his way, before battling them, and should be helping them out of a tight spot at some point, but doing everything he can from undermining his master's plans, whatever they may be. Devastis fights with two double-headed lightsabers - he has invented a lighstaber form where he fights like a whirlwind of destruction, shutting and re-litting his saber beams to pass the enemy's defenses while avoiding from cutting his own flesh.

Darth Dementus, a female Sith who is schizophrenic and completely uncontrollable. She suffers from multiple cases of split personality, and might at first seem like an innocent young woman, while transforming into a gibbering lunatic and then into a psychotic murdered. She has mastered the Teräs Käsi, is highly acrobatic and uses a lot of unexpected, improvised weapons and manouvers in battle. There is a small chance that if the players manage to subdue her when they meet, they might be able to cure her insanity.

The player characters will most likely be a Force-Adept, a rogue Jedi, and a bounty hunter, with a possible odd fourth in the mix.

Opinions? Are the bad guys fitting for the setting? I've never held a SW-game before, so I'd like your opinions if characters like this actually work in a game like I've explained.

Edwin
2009-10-12, 03:27 PM
Depends on what purpose they serve.

Are they supposed to simply be tough goons in the way of the big prize, or are they rich, undetermined characters in themselves?

For example, Voidis, at this point, seems rather bland. Sure, I'll give you he has an interesting fighting style, but beyond horrible childhood, there's not much flesh to pick. Exactly what happened, why did it happen, who were involved, and what effects other than the loss of his arms and a bump of the head did it have?

Maybe you should consider twisting it a little, since stereo-typical backgrounds tends to be pretty not interesting, meaning that it wont truly keep the players attention. If you made him, say, ruthlessly ambitious, you would just follow the standard sith path - boring.

However, say he's concerned about the natives of Morigoth, whatever they are. Perhaps he became thus after seeing their suffering at the cruel treatment by the rest of the sith (save the charismatic leader, of course, which is why he follows him).

Point is, make your villains unique and interesting - not just brooding, dark-clad dickwads with red lightsabers, yes? :smallsmile:

I would be happy to help you further, and more specifically, if you want.

Meridian
2009-10-12, 05:56 PM
Depends on what purpose they serve.

Are they supposed to simply be tough goons in the way of the big prize, or are they rich, undetermined characters in themselves?

For example, Voidis, at this point, seems rather bland. Sure, I'll give you he has an interesting fighting style, but beyond horrible childhood, there's not much flesh to pick. Exactly what happened, why did it happen, who were involved, and what effects other than the loss of his arms and a bump of the head did it have?

Maybe you should consider twisting it a little, since stereo-typical backgrounds tends to be pretty not interesting, meaning that it wont truly keep the players attention. If you made him, say, ruthlessly ambitious, you would just follow the standard sith path - boring.

However, say he's concerned about the natives of Morigoth, whatever they are. Perhaps he became thus after seeing their suffering at the cruel treatment by the rest of the sith (save the charismatic leader, of course, which is why he follows him).

Point is, make your villains unique and interesting - not just brooding, dark-clad dickwads with red lightsabers, yes? :smallsmile:

I would be happy to help you further, and more specifically, if you want.

That would be great. I'm not really that good at making my NPC's that interesting, somehow they always end up clichéd. Your suggestion about making Voidis actually care about the people of Morigoth (whom I'm thinking are humans, twi'leks and a bit of others, mostly settlers, though.

How about making my villains see the Jedi as oppressors with their doctrines and rules, and they wish to break up the Jedi Council and bring equality and balance to the galaxy? Of course, this is contrasted by the fact that some of the Sith are reckless and indomitable, like Dementus, for example.

EDIT: and by that, I mean they're actually friendly and kind to most people.

Edwin
2009-10-12, 06:14 PM
That would be great. I'm not really that good at making my NPC's that interesting, somehow they always end up clichéd. Your suggestion about making Voidis actually care about the people of Morigoth (whom I'm thinking are humans, twi'leks and a bit of others, mostly settlers, though.

How about making my villains see the Jedi as oppressors with their doctrines and rules, and they wish to break up the Jedi Council and bring equality and balance to the galaxy? Of course, this is contrasted by the fact that some of the Sith are reckless and indomitable, like Dementus, for example.

EDIT: and by that, I mean they're actually friendly and kind to most people.

Lose the oppressor angle, which has been done before, and that's not a bad way to go.

Sort of like the philosophy of Steven Biko.

An important thing to stress about this though is that you could end up with the players heel-turning on ya, suddenly going for the Jedi as the bad guys.

Not that it would be a bad thing, in fact, it could very well make for a pretty awesome campaign. :smallsmile:

Anything specific you want some help with?

sebsmith
2009-10-12, 07:14 PM
Lets see, far after movie six could work since the rule of two would have been truly broken by that point. You might want to decide how Darth Devouris got his sith knowledge. The simplest way might be from a line started by an exploration corps's (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Exploration_Corps) member which found a holocron (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sith_holocron) to learn more from. The holocron corrupted the initial students and when the players stumble across it at the end of the adventure it might corrupt them too.

You'll need to decide the current dominant form of government in the galaxy and the position of the Jedi council. Did the Fel Empire (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Fel_Empire) return to dominance, thus leaving the Jedi as a weak but independent body? Did the Galactic Alliance (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Galactic_Federation_of_Free_Alliances) finally return the galaxy to a relatively stable and democratic society with a semi-independent Jedi force? Did the Jedi finally get the stick out of their butt, deal with the Sith, and (without a dark-side to cloud their force sense) reestablish the force oligarchy from BBY 2,000 to BBY 1000? Or is some other group now the dominant power? Like the Hutts? Or Independent Sectors?

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-10-12, 08:20 PM
You've gotten plenty of advice on plot and characterization, so I'll bring up the one thing that stuck out to me: the Sith names. In canon you have Vader, Bane, Scion, Talon, Malak, Revan, Krayt, and tons of other varied names, yet all of your Sith have -is or -us names and too many D's and V's in there, which sounds a bit artificial. Plus, the origin of the names is somewhat blatant; Sith chosen names tend to be either plain words like Maul, Ruin, etc. or a bit more obscure like Vader, Revan, etc., not a common word with a different ending.

Might I suggest replacing Devouris, Voidis, Devastis, and Dementus with Vouran, Null, Desolas, and Invictus? Devouris from devour can easily become Vouran (and in canon there's a living planet called D'vouran, so that gives the name some nice evil associations); Null and Void are basically synonyms, and "null and void" is a minor joke (his arms no longer exist); devastate and desolate are partial synonyms, which then gives Desolas; and "invictus" means unconquered, since Dementus is absolutely uncontrollable.

Hawriel
2009-10-12, 09:44 PM
Actualy the story arc that the star wars novels are doing right know have the sithing coming back in strength. Of corse they are 30 years after jedi.

Meridian
2009-10-12, 11:11 PM
Thanks to everyone who posted great pointers and tips. As said, I'm not that much of an SW-knower, especially when it comes to the more obscure parts!

What I've been thinking of about the overall setting is this:

The Galactic Alliance brought peace back to the galaxy, and the game is set some 100 years after the Imperium was defeated. In my campaign, the galaxy has pretty much returned to pre-imperial democracy, governed by the senate. Laws are enforced by the Jedi, who are a special police of sorts. Many planets are practically autonomous, though.

(This far everything should make pretty much sense.)

(I'm using some new names suggested by Lost, by the way, since they were more fitting and sounded cooler!)

I've thought that Darth Vouran was a Force-Adept who came upon the tomb of an ancient Sith Lord, where he was contacted by the remnant (what is the actual term for the Force 'ghosts' or are they just programmed images?) of the deceased Sith. Sensing the slumbering spark of the Force within the young traveller, the long-dead lord of the Dark Side taught the young Force-Adept the ways of the Sith, but for one condition; he'd need to let the sentience of the forgotten Sith Lord to assimilate into his psyche so he could live again. The young man agreed, and over the next years, he became Darth Vouran. At the end of his training, the Sith Lord attempted to take over the mind of his young pupil, but he had become too powerful, and absorbed the remnant's knowledge instead of becoming a puppet. Lord Vouran left the crypt of the forgotten Sith, and began his new Sith Order on Morigoth.

(Does the above make any sense? If not, I can go with the holocron one too.)

Vouran sees the teachings and the strict discipline of the Jedi as inhuman, and questions their right to serve as the ultimate enforcers of law. He wishes to bring equality to the democracy, where there is still poverty, hunger and suffering from which the leaders of the Alliance close their eyes. Darth Vouran will go to any lenghts to make his vision come true, and although he treats extremely kindly and well those who join his crusade, his enemies are dealt with swiftly and using any means necessary.

(Too shallow motive? Any suggestions? I got this one idea of him attempting to imprison all the Jedi and kill them off at the same time in the same place, using a long-lost Sith ritual to ascend into something greater than a mere mortal?)


Thoughts?


Thus far, I've changed the names to:

Darth Vouran,
Darth Null

I'm still keeping Devastis and Dementus, since there is already a Desolous, and Invictus feels to strong for the character. As far as I know, the names of the Sith are given to them depending on some of their attributes? I know that unconquered fits Dementus well, but it's still a bit too strong for my taste.

Looking at my notes, I also realized I had forgotten one of Vouran's lieutenants; a Sith Lord who is a droid with some parts replaced by human limbs and organs, and with an Artusian crystal embedded in his chest. Is this workable? I'm ready to drop him if this is completely impossible. (Using Force requires living tissue, which is why he has human parts.)

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-10-12, 11:33 PM
Darth Vouran,
Darth Null

I'm still keeping Devastis and Dementus, since there is already a Desolous, and Invictus feels to strong for the character. As far as I know, the names of the Sith are given to them depending on some of their attributes? I know that unconquered fits Dementus well, but it's still a bit too strong for my taste.

There is a Desolous, though it's implied that the root of his name is "de-soul" and/or "soulless" rather than "desolate"; if you want to keep it as-is, it should probably be fine given the other name changes.

Dementus just doesn't fit, I think. Perhaps Panic would fit, or Delirium? Something that implies crazy-as-in-dangerous rather than crazy-as-in-disabled.

sebsmith
2009-10-13, 01:47 AM
Bump the date to circa 200 ABY and your backstory will be fine.

Your backstory for the sith will work, but the old master can't be one located here (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Valley_of_the_Dark_Lords). Also you'll want the sith lord to be from before the rule of two was established to explain why you have more than two sith. The maps (http://starwarsatlas.uw.hu/thelist.htm) I've found would therefore likely place your world in the outer rim near Korriban and Thule. You'll need a reason why nobody has bothered his tomb before and why it isn't with all the other tombs, but that might be since this sith lord just wasn't anything special.

The sith's ghost would be called a force ghost. Part of the reason I suggested a holocron was that it could be its own source of adventure. To help make Vouran's goals look decent, you could make the Galactic Alliance seem like an Illiberal democracy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illiberal_democracy) or another form of failed democracy. (This isn't entirely without canon support given that sectors are less fairly drawn then US states {canonically ranging from 3 to 300 worlds} and the main political factions {the universe doesn't have parties, these are roughly the equivalent of house caucuses} are described as being quite conservative by US standards on economic issues.)

karnokoto
2009-10-13, 04:45 AM
I actually really like em :D
The names were the only thing that struck me as ah, well, and no offense meant but I'm not going to beat around the bush- they were pretty lame. But they're Sith, I spose you gotta give em some slack!
Vouran is decent, if it were up to me I might change it to Devuris or something similar- it sounds Sithy just thinking about it. BUT I like Vouran too so either one works.

You should rename Darth Null (I like that name a lot) to Phantom Limb ;)
Kidding. Kind of.:smalltongue:

mackejn
2009-10-13, 08:31 AM
Yeah I'd second the moving the time period. The overall plot and characters seem to be fine to me, but the setting would be a little off according to established cannon. Granted, you don't HAVE to follow that. You can just make up your own version of the universe. If you want to use established cannon, you should probably work it either closer to Legacy Era or before Darth Bane time. Personally, I'd go for later because less has been written. It might work really well between the current arc and the Legacy comics since most of that hasn't been filled in lore wise.

Meridian
2009-10-13, 10:36 AM
Dementus just doesn't fit, I think. Perhaps Panic would fit, or Delirium? Something that implies crazy-as-in-dangerous rather than crazy-as-in-disabled.

Delirium sounds very good. What should I twist it to? Deliris is the first that comes to mind, and then there's a bit more girly(!) Darth Liriam. My one thought was using Mania, but I didn't know how to change it to Sith-y.


About moving the time period:

Yeah, that sounds good. I just don't know that much about the timelines and the events that happen during that time. Can I just go with "there's a corrupted democratic Alliance in the galaxy, and the Sith have gone into hiding?" Can someone give me a short overview about the general setting of that time? My players won't know much anything about SW, also, so it doesn't matter if I invent stuff up a bit. However, it'd be nice to be at least somewhat canonical!

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-10-13, 11:22 AM
Delirium sounds very good. What should I twist it to? Deliris is the first that comes to mind, and then there's a bit more girly(!) Darth Liriam. My one thought was using Mania, but I didn't know how to change it to Sith-y.

Liriam would probably work better; it's more cutesy, so if she just introduces herself as "Liriam" without the Darth, they'd probably underestimate her...to their ultimate regret. :smallamused:


About moving the time period:

Yeah, that sounds good. I just don't know that much about the timelines and the events that happen during that time. Can I just go with "there's a corrupted democratic Alliance in the galaxy, and the Sith have gone into hiding?" Can someone give me a short overview about the general setting of that time? My players won't know much anything about SW, also, so it doesn't matter if I invent stuff up a bit. However, it'd be nice to be at least somewhat canonical!

Well, around 200 ABY, not much is canonically known about the galaxy at that point; the current timeline is somewhere around ~140 ABY, so you'd have completely free reign to reorganize anything you wanted in those last 20 years to set things up as you like them. For a quick overview of what happens between Ep VI and then, check out this Wookieepedia page (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_galactic_history).

mackejn
2009-10-13, 12:07 PM
I'll second the taking a look at wookiepedia. You can find most of the official cannon questions you ahve there. The other option in terms of setting is to just have it take place in the Unkown Regions and make up whatever you want. Since those regions are largely unexplored anyways you could just have an area people have forgetten about or not stumbled upon yet. Doing that means you can tie it into just about any time period you want. If you want to bring in some characters from cannon later you can just head into known space.

Gamgee
2009-10-13, 12:09 PM
One of the best Villains I ever made was a Feeorin called Xim who was formerly a Jedi who turned to the Dark Side. He did this only because he wanted to the greatest challenge possible, and all the rewards were just bonuses. However, there was always something not quite right with joining the Sith.

It almost felt too easy, and I hinted upon this with my players as well. So they got the genius idea to try convince him why it is a greater challenge for the Jedi to go on existing. After a battle where they managed to defeat him they finally convinced him.

As all that he has done dawns on him he gave a large yell before tossing his Sith Saber away. The party thought they were going to have to kill him, but he just left without a word.

When they were desperate he came back to their aid. He had to challenge himself now, not only for the challenge, but to undo all the things he did and claimed were great. It made tons of sidequests as we traced back his history into turning to the darkside.

It all started when a Sith bested his master in combat. He wanted to win so badly he sought out the forbidden knowledge of the darkside and turned. Then as I said above he came to realize it was the quick and easy path, and that it was far harder to stay true to something and be good than it is to just saber something in half.

Xim hounded my players for the whole game, and due to the way I designed him and played him he was the only one capable of besting four of them easily. It was only through immense effort and trying to out think him that they managed to beat him and get him to listen. He would frequently taunt them, and even just make fun of them for always losing but managing to scurry away to come back and lose another day. That sort of thing, but after he was redeemed he became for more tempered and less of a show off. It was good, but I have no idea how high on the originality scale it rates.

----

The only other villain I ever made that was truly memorable was a bounty hunter in the KotOR era.

He was the son of Cassus Fett, and he was a sniper. The group was trying to find him so they could restart the Mandalorians after Canderous was killed, but he was sick of the Mandalorians and their outdated ways. He wanted nothing to do with conquering the universe through force of arms. He believed the only way for the Mandalorians to conquer the universe is through being the best of the best Mercenaries, and that now was a good time to start by collecting the bounty the players have on their heads.

He succeeded too as I built him for maximum stealth. He judiciously used the snipe application of the stealth skill while he picked away at the party who was in the grove. I intended for them to run when they learned they could not win on his natural battlefield, but they were stupid. So they all got caught. The last thing my one player seen was him coming out of the forest and de-cloaking before firing his pistol on Stun.