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Kaymeera
2007-04-26, 01:39 AM
in a Star Wars d20 campaign.

I'm thinking about starting up a SW d20 here on GiantITP, but players tend to burn through all my organized main and side-quest ideas before I can make any new ones in the middle of a game.

So here's a reserve pool of ideas I can steal, twist and make my own!

Go!

Attilargh
2007-04-26, 03:56 AM
Order 66.
You owe a Hutt something.
A Hutt thinks you owe him something.
The Imperials think you are in cahoots with some Hutts.
Somebody slipped spice into your pocket to avoid getting caught.
The Imperials noticed, but drew the wrong conlusions.
You know that wacky old veteran of the Clone Wars running the cantina? Yeah, he used to be a jedi.
You witness a very nervous, geeky-looking man murder someone.
The victim is an Imperial.
The murderer is an Imperial.
They both are Imperials.
Someone stole your contraband.
And now you're in trouble with the Hutts.
Someone not only stole your contraband, but replaced it with something else.
The Imperial customs officer is corrupt. Unfortunately for you, his aide isn't.
The aide is actually from Imperial Security Bureau.
There's an old tomb near the place you're getting supplies from.
The archaeologists making the digs need help.
Because they vanished without a trace.
Your hyperdrive is busted. You limp and/or crash to the nearest hapitable place.
Which happens to be infested with nocturnal predators.
Guess when the next eclipse occurs?
You find a derelict Acclamator I-class assault ship (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Acclamator_I-class_assault_ship).
With pirates/live clones/mysteriously dead clones/a dark jedi.
And they need your help.

Find anything you like?

Dervag
2007-04-26, 05:04 AM
26. The Imperial customs officer is so corrupt you can't count on him to stay bribed (always a good way to keep the heroes looking over their shoulder, in any campaign).

fireinthedust
2007-04-26, 05:29 AM
Saga, Depth, Emotion. Otherwise the game is bland and has no point.

Other than that, interesting characters who are larger than life, but have a core of depth. let the players do the actions they want, not just reactions.

I like weird aliens, strange locations, and actually using things from the universe *alongside* new stuff.

For example, I'd love to play a game with sw and d20 future rules for cybernetics, gadgetry, templates, the d20 modern base classes rather than sw non-jedi; I'm a rules-collector as well as a story teller.
And I found rules for xenomorphs fromt he Aliens movies. That would be sweet (a Yuzhang vong, a Jedi, a Cyborg and a gadgetry Bountry Hunter stuck somewhere with an Alien?).
Heck, I had a campaign mapped out where the PCs fight a plague that creates "viral death spawn" from Dawn of the dead.

Ancient Sith artifacts are good for horror themes, as are "things from beyond the outer riiiim".
Genetic modification factories (lycanthropy template, etc.)
Brains in vats
Cybernetics from d20 future
armies of droids, clones, yuzhan vong, and stormtroopers.
Letting the PCs have a star destroyer, or their own ship, or droids.
jungle monsters
Jabba the Hutt

locations: always go extreme, like endless deserts, fierce storms, blizzard planets, bespin, whatever. Survival is exciting, and sets the tone really well.

Keep it regular and let the PCs do their thing.

thorgrim29
2007-04-26, 07:19 AM
1: Invite me to your game
2: Set it in a relatively unknown time period, such as late republic, or even early republic
3: From past experieces: dont let your players be a:rappers b: psychotic droids c: ewoks with thermal detonators
4: I'd say either set the action on a specific planet, or everywhere.
5: a slightly KOTOR feel would be fun, have a ship, and travel around, learning new info on a big pan galactic conspiracy.

fireinthedust
2007-04-26, 07:29 AM
1) Three-planet rule. It's important: tatooine, death star (alderan), yavin; Hoth, degoba, Bespin; tattooine, degobah (sort of), Endor. Or just loads of interesting planets (revenge of the sith)
2) I'd like to go after new jedi order: assume the vong invasion is over (somehow?), and the jedi are back, but that way we're not ineffectual in stopping palpatine
3) Above 6th: not too high, but we get to use the tech and options, and can do more. 8th is perfect (PrCs, etc.)
4) I like the ship, exploring stuff, and having stuff for the group: it's a mobile HQ that helps you focus the action within system. Stuff includes group droids, recurring contacts, etc.
5) make cool villains we can go through (like darth maul, christopher lloyd, general grevious), and others to focus the plot (the emperor).

fireinthedust
2007-04-26, 10:14 AM
so, uh, when are you starting recruitment? :)

Holocron Coder
2007-04-26, 01:00 PM
Here's a pretty good idea... read the Rogue squadron series :) 8 books, all with VERY d20-able circumstances. Covert missions, spacecraft battles, everything :)

The_Snark
2007-04-26, 08:10 PM
Before I go into the ideas, find out what sort of Star Wars your players like. Some of them like Jedi-heavy games, which means that you'll probably want to play either Old Republic-era or late New Republic. Some of them like games that don't feature Jedi, which makes the Empire a nice choice. Some players won't like seeing lots of strange new things from the books, some will. Some players dislike sticking too closely to the planets in the movies, some will head straight for Tatooine. Some might want to pretend the prequels never happened. You probably have preferences as a DM, too.

Ideas...
- You've been assigned to get information out of a local Imperial base, either by the Rebels or someone else with an interest in this information. You can hack into the computer system to get the information, but you'd need to do that from the inside. Alternatively, find a high-ranking officer to bribe/get drunk.
- For whatever reason, planetary security has taken a dislike to you. Make your way to your ship without getting caught, get it out of impoundment, and blast your way off-planet.
- You're paid a large sum of money to take an innocent-looking package from someone and deliver it to another planet, only to find out that it's been stolen from a Hutt, who is now hot on your tail. You can try to make it, engage the Hutt's ships, try to explain and see if you can get a reward out of him, or dump the cargo and run.

Actually, here's a good rule of thumb: The authorities shouldn't usually be good guys. If your characters are Rebels, good; you have the Empire to work with. If they have criminal connections, local law enforcement works fine. If they're Old Republic Jedi, some of the planetary governments ought to distrust them (potential Separatists, fear that they'll uncover corruption, whatever reason works). A hostile government's a great, omnipresent antagonist; if you run out of ideas, have the port governor try to trump up charges to arrest them. Or have stormtroopers knock on the door demanding entrance.

Dervag
2007-04-26, 08:21 PM
1) Three-planet rule. It's important: tatooine, death star (alderan), yavin; Hoth, degoba, Bespin; tattooine, degobah (sort of), Endor. Or just loads of interesting planets (revenge of the sith)Even there, pretty much all the action took place on Coruscant, Utapau, or Mustafar. The other planets were really just backdrops.

TheThan
2007-04-26, 08:32 PM
I would like to see a redone New Jedi Order campaign, Jedi Vs Sith. Only small scale. Like the Sith decided to break the only 2, no more no less rule (stupid rule that it was) and are growing slowly. Maybe they are corrupting planetary officials or one Sith found an old cache of battle druids left over from the clone wars, or they stumped upon an ancient Sith holocron. The possibilities are endless for a campaign on either side.

thorgrim29
2007-04-26, 08:49 PM
Yessssss.... I see it now, the players start as pupils in Luke's academy, and get sent to some backwater corner of the galaxy or the other by "random DM plot device", where they gradualy uncover a conspiracy, preferably involving ex-students who turned to the dark side.

Vyker
2007-04-26, 08:51 PM
Step One: Throw out the d20 stuff and snag West End Game's d6 varient. Second edition, third edition, either one works great. It's harder to "balance" characters vs. encounters, since it has neither levels nor classes, but it (in my opinion) feels more like Star Wars and less like "D&D in space."

Also, the rules are far more welcoming for everyone who isn't a Jedi, since most of the sourcebooks presume that Jedi will either not be present or will be exceptionally rare (since it takes place during the Rebellion era). Note: You can still have Jedi, and they'll still be awesome. This just gives everyone else options which the d20 version does not.

Step Two: Like the Snark said, find out what "Star Wars" means to your players.

In particular, get their feelings on Jedi.

Some folks love Star Wars but despise Jedi. Others can tell you the seven saber styles in practice prior to Order 66, who practiced them, and why their character should have the Secret Eighth Style. And still others want to be psychic ninja-wizards with lightning swords and don't really care what setting they have to play in to be one.

Or, phrased another way, Firefly's popularity was described as "Joss Whedon realizing something George Lucas never understood. A lot of us weren't there for Luke Skywalker. We were there for Han Solo."

Your mileage may vary. And that's the point. I don't care which side you come down on, or whether you come down on any side at all. But your players very well might, and that'll have serious reprecussions on your game if everyone isn't on the same page.

Also, try and figure out how much of the Expanded Universe you really want to include. Some of it... really should never have seen the light of day.

I'll toss some plot hooks and stuff up later. But for now, really, really, really give serious thought to your ideas on Jedi. Preferably, post them, too, so we can give ideas more in line with what you may use.

Koga
2007-04-26, 09:09 PM
Ideas eh?

A wookie, a twi'lik, and a jawa walk into a bar...

Ishikar
2007-05-09, 12:20 AM
hmm... Star wars plots...

1) An old imperial weapon is activated, the heros have to stop it before it does serious damage.

2) Droids are behaving strangely, is there a hacker on the loose or is something more devious at work.

3) children are being kidnapped or simply disappearing, what's doing it?

4) Dark Jedi have taken a hero's friend/relative hostage, rescue is needed.

5) hero's friend/relative was jealous of hero so cooperated with dark jedi to capture/kill hero.

6) A strange new virus begins to spread wiping out entire species but leaving others intact, find the source (could be made more interesting if the species being wiped out is one that a hero happes to be a member of)

7) An imperial trooper claims to be willing to defect with important information, is it real or a trap, time is short before the trooper is found out.

8) A strange vessel appears, bearing no known markings and broadcasting an unusual repeating signal, is it a message or something darker...

9) Heros are captured, escape with their weapons and effects has to be figured out.

10) while escaping they find a strange diagram plotting several unexplored regions of space with hyperspace markings and enigmatic labels.

11) A strange crystalline structure begins to grow on several worlds. It begins enslaving people and forcing them to build even larger structures.

12) The crystals grant the ability to use the force to their drones and emit a suppression field of sorts preventing other force users from using their powers.

13) The crystaline structures take in Jedi and other force sensitive creatures seemingly feeding on them or extending a sort of hive mind across the galaxy or even beyond.

14) A creature somewhat like a Ysalimiri appears but instead of suppressing the force it forcefully draws it out of it's surroundings. It can be a great boon to someone cunning enough to use it but by drawing out the force as it does wears down and eventually kills any who approach too closely.

15) The heros land in an abandoned city hoping to find fuel and to resupply, the city is badly damaged and it seems like something is there yet not. A strange locking mechanism is found open under the rubble of what appears to be a fountain or statue with blood splattered across the area.

And that's what I can come up with for now, some are more original than others but being original is hard nowadays.