[SAGA EDITION]My DM friend has writers block...

[SilverSheriff]

Recently my DM has been running a few Saga Edition games and he's come up with the worst problem of all: writers block, so I was thinking of taking over for him, just until the point where he gets over his writers block.


I must admit it was me and a fellow player's fault that the poor guy has this terrible problem, as we kidnapped the BBEG in the first place, which led him to using Ninja's to steal him back, it especially didn't help when my character all of a sudden said "I need to alert the Jedi Council"...


so whats your opinion on me taking over my friends game?

[Grynning]

My friend and I have done this on occasion, where one of us will temporarily (or permanently) take over the others game because of writer's block or other issues. I would suggest that you run a side-quest type adventure that doesn't interfere with the main story too much so he can take a week or two to recover from the derailment and get some ideas together, or maybe run a different game altogether while he takes a break. If you're already in the midst of a time-sensitive conflict and you literally have to take over the campaign, make sure to consult them and see if they want to take over your character (which is what I did once when we switched) or make their own character to play. Either way, don't go too wild and try to stick with their concept, to prevent hard feelings.

[Artanis]

If you're going to write a Sci-Fi story, there's a very simple formula that you can use if nothing else works:

Step 1: Read a John Ringo book
Step 2: Do the exact opposite of what he does

[Dervag]

If you're going to write a Sci-Fi story, there's a very simple formula that you can use if nothing else works:

Step 1: Read a John Ringo book
Step 2: Do the exact opposite of what he doesWhat, write a short book in extremely "literary" style in which there is essentially no action of any kind?

I mean, that would be the opposite of a John Ringo book. Ringo writes medium-lengthy books in a style foreign to English-teacher-type "literature" in which there is a great deal of action of virtually all kinds.

I'm not sure you could make an interesting D&D adventure out of the diametric opposite of a Ringo novel, because there wouldn't be any adventure hooks. Tons and tons of characterization, but not many adventure hooks. It would be like trying to run your D&D characters through a Jane Austen novel or something.

[BlackStaticWolf]

It would be like trying to run your D&D characters through a Jane Austen novel or something.

I propose that attempting to have players run through a D&D conversion of Sense and Sensibility would be simultaneously hilarious and terrifying.

[Jastermereel]

Decide early on when you are adventuring.

I'm currently in a short DM stint while the normal guy finishes his thesis and I'm in the process of retroactively extending the adventure before our current one. While this has meant that the hook is taken care of, but everything else that's important (matters of Life and Loot) has to either stick to the status-quo or have a roundabout explanation: i.e. The centaurs who sent us on our last mission and our current (on hiatus mission) will forge some nice armor or boots or something for us but it'll only be done after we (and the normal DM) get back.

In short, lets have three cheers for a no-restraints dream sequence!

[Talya]

Oooh, i got some.

So one of the players isn't who he thinks he is, but is really a former sith lord who has been reprogrammed by the jedi council to think he's a common smuggler...or soldier...or scout...it doesn't matter. But it's revealed later that the BBEG used to be the sith lord's apprentice and betrayed him...

No! Hold on...

There's this geographical feature strong in the force, and a team of seven dark jedi are scheming to make it their own, and one of the player's had a jedi knight father who knew its location...wait...no...

Oh! I got it! There was this prophecy about someone bringing balance...uh...

Someone builds a small indestructable ship capable of destroying stars? No...

A farm boy gets caught up in a struggle to end an oppressive regime...


Okay. I give up.

[Azerian Kelimon]

Easy, steal from the Jedi knight series and have Kyle Katarn make a badass cameo kicking butt, since he is, after all, the unequaled master of saber combat.

[Mando Knight]

Oooh, i got some.

So one of the players isn't who he thinks he is, but is really a former sith lord who has been reprogrammed by the jedi council to think he's a common smuggler...or soldier...or scout...it doesn't matter. But it's revealed later that the BBEG used to be the sith lord's apprentice and betrayed him...

No! Hold on...

There's this geographical feature strong in the force, and a team of seven dark jedi are scheming to make it their own, and one of the player's had a jedi knight father who knew its location...wait...no...

Oh! I got it! There was this prophecy about someone bringing balance...uh...

Someone builds a small indestructable ship capable of destroying stars? No...

A farm boy gets caught up in a struggle to end an oppressive regime...


Okay. I give up.

Heh. Is it bad that I can name each of the plots that you listed?
1: Darth Revan/KotOR, 2: Kyle Katarn & the Valley of the Jedi/Dark Forces II, 3: Anakin Skywalker/Star Wars movies, 4: Sun Crusher/Jedi Academy Trilogy, 5: Luke Skywalker/Classic Trilogy

EDIT: I had forgotten what else I was going to type before I hit Submit...

If he's going to be out for quite some time, you may want to start a Dawn of Defiance campaign...

Or, you could have a mercenary campaign, in which the players are hired as elite shock troopers for a mercenary corps, and get hired by heroes/villains from the appropriate era. They could rise through the ranks of the corps, and debate with their commander about whether they want to take the job (moral reasons vs. pay, etc.)

[Artanis]

What, write a short book in extremely "literary" style in which there is essentially no action of any kind?

I mean, that would be the opposite of a John Ringo book. Ringo writes medium-lengthy books in a style foreign to English-teacher-type "literature" in which there is a great deal of action of virtually all kinds.

I'm not sure you could make an interesting D&D adventure out of the diametric opposite of a Ringo novel, because there wouldn't be any adventure hooks. Tons and tons of characterization, but not many adventure hooks. It would be like trying to run your D&D characters through a Jane Austen novel or something.
John Ringo books are nothing more than him masturbating over how awesome his characters and gadgets are, despite all of both being moronic. Thus, by doing the opposite, the DM would have a story that doesn't suck and that features characters with enough intelligence to tie their shoes.

[feghoot]

Easy, steal from the Jedi knight series and have Kyle Katarn make a badass cameo kicking butt, since he is, after all, the unequaled master of saber combat.

I find that cameos tend to come off as a bit cheesy.

If I were you, I'd strip-mine the players backstorys for ideas. Jedi have a brother? Well, now he needs the Jedi's help as he struggles with the darkside and his own budding powers. You know, stuff like that.

[Jothki]

It might help for your friend to think about the plot in a different way. Try having him stop thinking about what's going to happen next. Instead, have him work out what all of the forces in play are and how they might react to each other and the players.

If he's honestly run out of enemies, though, he might still have a problem.

[SilverSheriff]

ok, I have his DM notes right here (I'm deffinitely taking over his game now.)

Here is his re-cap of what happened:
the jedi have been sent to nar shadda to stop illegal trading of lightsabers the person behind it is Crime lord Turosak Abi and his self-taught trandoshan dark-side marauder Drassk. turosak is building lightsabers using inferior quality synthesised lightsaber crystals at his lab, the only one of his thugs with a full quality lightsaber is Drassk. he builds them at a factory and stores them in a section of one of his warehouses. he has built a stash of lightsabers and is now focusing on a mining operation below the waste proccesers. an asteroid crashed there long ago and Abi's strongest minion Drassk found a yellow lightsaber crystal there. he is mining the asteroid under the rebuilt area. he is working secretly for the dark jedi Sothra Ku who plans to get a large shipment of cheap lightsabers and crystals to make full-quality lightsabers for his disciples. Sothra Ku is based in a secret conclave on Ylesia near Nar Shadda in hutt space.

Padawan Leon Varta Nadolion and Bounty hunter Dra Koon landed on Nar Shadda and soon discovered that the ABISERT officers that were supposed to protect the area were intensly crooked. they encountered a rodian cantina owner radjit who ha proved to be a valuable contact, also his Regulars such as sullustan pilot wurus hoybb whom the players are torn between collecting the bounty for his arrest and losing a friend in the cantina owner radjit. the players had killed an apprentice of the self trained darkside user Drassk and sliced his comlink to get to his allies. the comlink provided a number for the "All Fortunes Run" club owned by thibaga the hutt, drassk himself and Turosak Abi the owner of abisert. they went back to their ship when an enemy clad in a heavy mechanical battlesuit was attempting to get on the ship, they fought but the enemy blocked off all access to the rest of the ship and knocked out the characters with stun grenade. they awoke in energy binders in a cell and drassk himself showed up to escape Leon Varta cleverly angered him so much that he was cut down and thrown his lightsaber for a duel, Drassk anger didn't help him against the power of the light side and he was defeated, even having foot chopped of in a final blow. the players escaped and found themselves in a detention area of ABISERT headquarters. by calling his bounty hunting probe droid Dra Koon distracted the guards enough to defeat them and escape taking drassk prisoner. but just as they exited the building a figure clad in a black shadowsuit leapt out of nowhere tackling Leon-Varta and grabbing drassk and then leapt impossibly high onto a building and ran off. the beleguered two head off to their ship to see what had happened, and it was not there, the Starpad was empty. the comlink proved that Leon-Vartas master was not in the system and in desperation they went to the sullustan pilot Wurus Hoybb in the hopes of getting transport to coruscant.

Wurus wont take them because of his mistakes in the republic controlled systems, but points out that Robbu the hut has a very good Ghtroc 720 Freighter called the "Void Eagle" and the players could be able to get it somehow if they are willing to take on a hutt crime lord. Fadrel abi when not living it up in his mansion in Drassks ganglands is a powerfull Minion of Robbu the hutt, and Thibaga the hutt who owns All Fortunes Run provides most of Robbus income, if the players had power over both of these two they could coerce Robbu to give them his ship, or they could use them to get close to Robbu and steal his ship from under his nose. Fadrel has a huge mansion

[Mando Knight]

A very good Ghtroc 720? What do they look like, Jae Juun (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jae_Juun) and Tarfang (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Tarfang)? If they're going against a Hutt for it, they ought to have a decent ship... like an illegally modified YT-1300, a Firespray prototype, or just about anything made by CEC (they're easily modified, and a good engineer character can make great use of Mechanics skills installing various illegal components. Great plot hook... get their greed to work for you...)