Starfinder Campaign Seed

[Steampunkette]

So hey! I'm looking into the possibility of doing a Starfinder game. I really want to play up exploration and social aspects of the game, and I think I've got a kick-butt method of doing it that completely rips off a TV show I and my players love.

Dark Matter.

The basic idea is that the players have no memories. They wake up in a (black market) Cloning Facility with a few hastily scrawled notes about how to get off-world that were, of course, written by themselves. Once off-planet, it's up to the players to find out who they are, what happened to their originals, and learn about the universe they've been dropped into, Tabula Rasa.

Initially I was considering working with each player, individually, to construct a background for them and their character based on their desires. But it occurs to me that it would be far more interesting if the players themselves had no idea what their stories were, and were in fact learning about their own identities as they go.

The biggest pitfall to this angle I see is the chance that one or more players will hate the person their character was before the cloning. A murderer, perhaps, or other criminal whose actions they don't want weighing on their character because it might feel forced... and, honestly, I respect that stance.

But I still feel like it's a worthwhile game to play. So I'm wondering if you can help me come up with stories that could be adapted independent of race or class to tie to whatever the player's make in several months when the game is released and we start playing.

One thing I desperately want to do is The Nobody.

While each of the characters has a background as a criminal or a cop or a soldier or scientist or whatever that lead them to the ship, together, where they did whatever they did before the cloning thing happened (and maybe the originals are dead, who knows?!) I want one PC who has the background of "Wrong Place Wrong Time."

A clone that was never a member of the ship. A clone of a middle manager living in a two bedroom apartment with no prospects and no savings. Who plays videogames all day long and who is still alive and in that life unaware that there even -is- a clone due to some mix up.

That person's clone is still a heroic member of the Starfinder crew, but only because the shadow-memories that lead all of the characters to have some special abilities are in fact the clone remembering the videogames rather than the life, and being the Pilot/Soldier/Whatever that the middle manager always wished they could become.

I just think that one would be a nice twist.

[DrMotives]

Sounds like the idea behind TSR's old Bughunters RPG. It was one of the campaign setting of Amazing Engine, a rules-light game developed by TSR with weird alternate worlds inspired by Amazing Stories magazine. In the Bughunters campaign, characters were all clones of boring nobodies who got reports from the government about what wild adventures their genetically enhanced clones were having, doing stuff inspired by 80s & 90s alien sci-fi monster movies.

[Waker]

I have no idea what a Starfinder game is, but that won't stop me from making suggestions.

They wake up in a (black market) Cloning Facility with a few hastily scrawled notes about how to get off-world that were, of course, written by themselves. Once off-planet, it's up to the players to find out who they are, what happened to their originals, and learn about the universe they've been dropped into, Tabula Rasa.
Might want to avoid the note part. That would imply the originals are aware of the clones, present at one time, willing enough to help but only so far as to leave a note. Perhaps you could have the black market get hit by a police/military force and the clone party is recovered during the raid. Or during a transport, the ship has some sort of failure that results in the clone being woken from cryo-sleep. In either situation, the data detailing who the clones originally came from could have been damaged/lost, which would make finding out who they came from more difficult.


The biggest pitfall to this angle I see is the chance that one or more players will hate the person their character was before the cloning. A murderer, perhaps, or other criminal whose actions they don't want weighing on their character because it might feel forced... and, honestly, I respect that stance.
I can understand not necessarily being pleased with discovering that you were cloned from a criminal, it does provide an excellent roleplaying opportunity. Are you the same person as the criminal? Do their sins become yours? How much of who you are comes from nature vs nurture?


But I still feel like it's a worthwhile game to play. So I'm wondering if you can help me come up with stories that could be adapted independent of race or class to tie to whatever the player's make in several months when the game is released and we start playing.
How detailed a story are you looking for the forum to provide?

[Mechalich]

The basic idea is that the players have no memories. They wake up in a (black market) Cloning Facility with a few hastily scrawled notes about how to get off-world that were, of course, written by themselves. Once off-planet, it's up to the players to find out who they are, what happened to their originals, and learn about the universe they've been dropped into, Tabula Rasa.

Initially I was considering working with each player, individually, to construct a background for them and their character based on their desires. But it occurs to me that it would be far more interesting if the players themselves had no idea what their stories were, and were in fact learning about their own identities as they go.


If you are going to do this, make absolutely certain your players are okay with ceding such an immense degree of control over character origins and abilities to the GM. You are essentially demanding that the players use canned characters for the entirety of a campaign, with the additional burden that they will not know who those canned characters actually are. Many players react badly to this sort of thing. Many players also react to this sort of thing, in a mechanically heavy system (which Starfinder will be) by playing their character sheet as a disparate collection of abilities rather than playing a character, which kind of ruins the whole scenario.

[Steampunkette]

How detailed a story are you looking for the forum to provide?

Anything more than 3-4 words, really. Though if it's a particularly compelling four words I'd go for it. ;)

"Street Samurai: This character was a bodyguard for a powerful individual, but due to circumstances beyond their control bad things happened to their employer and they were blamed for it." Would be more than enough to run from for making more background on the core idea.

I'm really just looking for seeds to grow.


If you are going to do this, make absolutely certain your players are okay with ceding such an immense degree of control over character origins and abilities to the GM. You are essentially demanding that the players use canned characters for the entirety of a campaign, with the additional burden that they will not know who those canned characters actually are. Many players react badly to this sort of thing. Many players also react to this sort of thing, in a mechanically heavy system (which Starfinder will be) by playing their character sheet as a disparate collection of abilities rather than playing a character, which kind of ruins the whole scenario.

They'll still pick their names, races, classes, and have all their skills and abilities per normal, it's just their backstory that would be put off to one side. Whoever they roleplay the character as is, of course, the right way to RP that character, and I wouldn't try to limit them based on the prior history of the character or anything.

It's definitely a big thing to cede, but this would obviously be something I talk to them about months in advance.

[Xethik]

I was also planning on ripping off Dark Matter for a Starfinder campaign seed.

One idea I was toying with though was to have players write backstories for each other. Again, as noted, you'd need the whole group to buy into it, but I think it could be somewhat neat. The biggest downside is that one player knows your character's secrets before you do.

I think polling the internet is a good alternative. I'll see if I can come up with anything.

[Elder_Basilisk]

If I trusted the DM's skill, I would be up for something like this. A new DM or a DM I had my doubts about, maybe so, maybe not.

That said, if you want to do a "find out who the originals of your characters are" thing, you should absolutely not let the players write their own "real" backstories. Doing so would defeat the whole project. A player cannot have a voyage of discovery if he already knows the destination. In order to be able to actually uncover clues and discover who the characters' originals were as an organic process, the truth needs to be hidden from the players as well as from the characters.

Note that this is entirely consistent with allowing players to create their characters mechanically. They know what their characters can do. They just don't know where they come from. Also, note that it is not necessary to have the backstory decided up front. The first few sessions, the characters may not find out anything beyond that they are clone THX-1149, REH-1935, HPL-1927, and QRF-2017, and that they are on a star-ship originally bound for an industrial hub in the asteroid belt prior to its malfunction that killed the crew and awakened the clones.

As for how the backstories could be made? Lots of ways. You could have each player submit six one-paragraph backstories and choose randomly with no player getting one they wrote. You could write some and put them on the internet. You could pull out the old Traveler books (or look up one online) and generate backstories using the random tables. Lots of options.

As far as player response to finding that their originals have unpleasant backgrounds, I suspect that you will find that it's not a terribly big deal. A lot of players are likely to take the existentialist route "I am what I do, not who I was cloned from" anyway, but that kind of dark conflicted thing is actually pretty good for the kind of player who likes really delving into a character's background. That's the kind of backstory such players often choose--especially if they want to turn their background into a source of angsty drama.

[LVL19Bard]

So, if you want to go a missing memory route... Here is what I did, this was my first session.


So I gave my players LVL 3 pregens I made, letting them pick their race, and sent them to a planet just past Aucturn's current position with a small opening monolog about them graduating from Adabar Academy as new 'Collection Agent's for the church instead of prison time. They enter the Drift and one notices a chunk of land that was pulled in with them that has a fantasy party fighting a Black dragon, but they have left it behind before she could share the sight with others. They exit the Drift and are hailed by a small ship claiming to be a bounty hunter searching the same 'Free Captains' that they are, they refuse to stand down and 4 rounds of ship combat ensue ending with the bounty hunter firing an EMP missile at them to delay them an hour. After systems come back online they land to discover his ship to be covered in blood and are attacked by a Blood Brother (which theysurprisingly manage to kill without real fear of death). They enter the compound and are instantly shot down by a squad of CR 18 Pirates using the stats of the Necrovite (Had to improvise fast for time's sake) and they woke up from near death to find their Adabar representative loading them into a Mnemonic Editor MK20(an experimental and unfinished version). They are 'killed' and I tell them that they will now make a LVL 1 character with the race they chose. They aren't dead, just had they entire life erased and replaced and will start next session as a member of an exploration squad of this pirate family.

PS. None of my players knew anything about Starfinder and are fairly new to Table top games in general so I wanted to get them a preview so they had a little idea of what things could do and a little world lore before making their characters at level 1, they also don't realize that it is still the same person MWAAHAHAHAHA! Now I will be running the game mostly open world and help tie their adventures into an over arcing story.

[daryen]

A clone that was never a member of the ship. A clone of a middle manager living in a two bedroom apartment with no prospects and no savings. Who plays videogames all day long and who is still alive and in that life unaware that there even -is- a clone due to some mix up.

That person's clone is still a heroic member of the Starfinder crew, but only because the shadow-memories that lead all of the characters to have some special abilities are in fact the clone remembering the videogames rather than the life, and being the Pilot/Soldier/Whatever that the middle manager always wished they could become.

I just think that one would be a nice twist.

Just for the record, I love this one. I would admit that this one would probably "hit close to home" if it was my character, but I would still love it. I hope you can use this one.

The really good/spiritual person who finds out they are a clone of a murder/psychopath is a very classic one that can be effective. Obviously, the reverse works, too, but doesn't have the same impact.

Other ideas:
- You can always do the "Total Recall" one where the character finds he is the clone of a hero, who is actually the clone of a bad guy. Feel free to go down into some multiple levels of this. Maybe this one isn't even a clone; they are just were just mind-wiped.

- Then there is the one where they are the clone, and of course only surviving heir, to some fabulous wealth/company/kingdom/whatever. As an added bonus, they would have to work harder to prove their legitimacy, as they are only a clone, not the "actual person".

- Have the clone be of a "Chosen One". The original was a Chosen One who did something Ridiculously Heroic and Significant. Then the clone will always have to live in the original's shadow, and likely not be able to do the same themselves. (And might not want to, if the Ridiculously Heroic act resulted in their premature death.

- Another idea is to have someone find out that they are the clone of someone with a particular background, then later find out they were *really* a clone of the first person's twin sibling, who has a dramatically different background.

- Have the clone find out their original was from the distant past, rather than a contemporary. Alternatively, they find out they are age advanced versions of small children. In the latter case, they could end up being responsible for caring for their original. (Be very careful with this one. Some players probably wouldn't take this well.)

- Find out they were "cloned" from something unexpectedly different. So, a human was a modified clone of a half-elf; or the clone was gender-switched from the original; or the android was created from/modeled on a human. Something that can be explained, but will serve as an unexpected switch. Works well if this donor survives.

- Find out that they were cloned from something they hate. So, the clone hates something, some idea, some religion, some group, and they find out that they were cloned from someone with that hated idea or part of that hated religion or group.

- Make sure that there is at least one (usually either the first original found, or the last one found) that is a virtual duplicate of the clone. If this is the first original found, then it sets the expectation that this will happen each time, so the impact of the first contrasting one is heightened. If this is the last original found, then it can throw them for a loop without requiring you to come up with yet another complicated background. Plus, you have the advantage that the players accidentally kill this one (if the others were hostile and alive) or at least just dismiss them because they assume they were some evil murderhobo, and yet actually have useful information for the players. (This can work whether the original is alive or dead. If they are dead, the information was left behind, but the players ignore it because, by this point, they assume the originals were just terrible people.) And, you can even save yourself time by having this work for both the first *and* last ones found.

Honestly, all of these are tropes. All have been done before, sometimes better than others, and some to death. The biggest thing is to make sure you change it up.

But I really like the idea of cloning someone's idealistic self, rather than cloning the actual self. That is a nice one.